Brampton’s Medtronic Canada announced this week that it had received a Health Canada licence for the Percept PC Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) system, which has the ability to chronically capture and record brain signals while delivering therapy to patients with neurologic disorders associated with Parkinson’s disease, essential tremor, dystonia, or epilepsy.
Physicians can now track patient brain signals and correlate these with patient recorded actions or experiences, such as symptoms, side-effects, or medication intake. The device enables more personalized, data-driven neurostimulator treatment, with the first implant of the newly licensed device in Canada planned to take place in Toronto. “Percept is the first commercially available implantable pulse generator with the ability to record and store the daytoday brain activity of patients with implanted electrodes for deep brain stimulation,” said Dr. Alfonso Fasano, M.D., Ph.D., neurologist and professor of neurology at the University of Toronto.
“Neurologists will have, for the first time, the opportunity to monitor their patients’ condition well beyond the relatively short time devoted to the doctor-patient interaction in the clinic. Percept will also expand our understanding of brain functioning during physiological and pathological states and set the stage for the development of closed-loop (i.e. adaptive) deep brain stimulation.”
DBS is an individualized therapy delivered from a small pacemakerlike device, placed under the skin of the chest or abdomen, to send electrical signals through very thin wires (leads) to a targeted area in the brain related to the symptoms of a neurological disorder, such as Parkinson’s disease. “There is nothing currently available that can replace clinical judgement in treating patients. For the first time, this technology gives clinicians feedback directly from the DBS patient’s brain,” said Mike Daly, vice president and general manager of the Brain Modulation business, which is part of the Restorative Therapies Group at Medtronic.
“With such data driven, patient specific insights, we believe it can change the standard of care.” Medtronic, which is headquartered in Brampton, employs more than 1,100 workers across the country.
