Neuromodulation System Digital Functional Map for Electrode Placement
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current neuromodulation systems for spinal cord injuries are time-consuming and exhaustive for both patients and medical staff, requiring matching input signals with specific patient reactions and precise electrode placement, which is challenging and inefficient.
Innovation Solution
A system that uses a digital characteristic map to analyze the relationship between stimulation input and patient response, allowing for the automatic generation of spatiotemporal neuromodulation therapies by creating a multidimensional map of stimulation input and output, enabling efficient electrode placement and therapy configuration for specific movements or tasks.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If manual electrode placement and therapy matching is used, then precise electrode placement can be achieved, but the process becomes time-consuming and exhaustive for patients and medical staff
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to create a digital copy of the patient's anatomy, including the spinal cord and surrounding structures. This digital anatomical model serves as a template for planning electrode placement, allowing the system to simulate and predict the volume of activation without requiring extensive manual trial-and-error placement during the actual procedure
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary electrode placement planning by calculating the volume of activation and optimizing electrode positions before the actual neurostimulation procedure. This pre-planning phase includes simulating different electrode configurations and predicting their effects on spinal cord activation, thereby reducing the time required during the actual procedure while maintaining precision
2Reliability
If extensive patient response matching is performed, then optimal therapy configuration can be achieved, but the process becomes exhaustive and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual trial-and-error therapy configuration with an automated computational system that uses the digital anatomical model to predict and optimize therapy parameters. The system automatically calculates the volume of activation for different electrode configurations and selects the optimal settings based on predefined effectiveness criteria, eliminating the need for exhaustive manual patient response matching
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables self-service therapy optimization by using the patient's own anatomical data from MRI scans to automatically generate personalized electrode placement plans and therapy configurations. The computational algorithms independently analyze the digital model and determine optimal parameters without requiring extensive manual intervention or iterative patient testing
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach simplifies the process of neuromodulation by efficiently mapping stimulation inputs to patient responses, reducing the time and effort required for electrode placement and therapy design, allowing for more effective and precise neuromodulation therapies, such as reversing leg paralysis in spinal cord injury patients.
Implementation Method 1
electrical neuromodulation of the lumbar spinal cord using epidural electrical stimulation (EES) is capable of (re-)activating these circuits
Data Source
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AI summary
The present invention relates system for planning and/or providing neuromodulation (10), especially neurostimulation, comprising - a neurostimulator (24) comprising a least one electrode (22), - functional mapping module (38) configured and arranged such that based on stimulation related basic data and stimulation related response data and transfer data a digital characteristic functional map is generated and/or provided, which describes the interrelation between the stimulation related basic data and the stimulation related response data and the transfer data, and - analysis module (42) configured and arranged such that the digital characteristic functional map can be analyzed in connection with neurostimulation provided by the neurostimulator such that the provided neurostimulation and and its response can be analyzed on the basis of the functional map and that on the basis of this analysis an placement analysis of the placement of the electrode is provided.