Each year in the United States alone, more than 1.7 million people suffer traumatic brain injuries (TBI). Many of these injuries are sports-related, some are the result of car crashes or falls; active duty military personnel are also at particular risk and TBI is considered the signature injury of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Regardless of the cause, brain injuries can have catastrophic results, especially when undetected. BrainScope technology, with research collaboration with NYU, may soon change the way that brain injuries are assessed, letting medical personnel identify injuries sooner, speeding triage and appropriate treatment.
BrainScope technology was developed with the studies of the late E. Roy John, Ph.D., who was a professor of psychiatry and director of the Brain Research Laboratories at NYU School of Medicine. Dr. John and his wife Leslie S. Prichep, Ph.D.—currently a professor in the department of psychiatry and the assistant director of the Brain Research Laboratories—devoted decades to the study of quantitative EEGs (QEEGs) and their clinical applications, in the process collecting and analyzing brainwave recordings from about 15,000 patient eval- uations to create one of the world’s largest EEG databases. To invent the device, a portable and non-invasive system, BrainScope tapped a team of signal-processing engineers from NYU and BrainScope. The BrainScope device consists of an adhesive strip, containing eight electrodes connected to a computer. Following a suspected head injury, the electrode strip is affixed to the patient’s forehead and the device automatically collects a sample of the patient’s EEG. Within minutes, the BrainScope device’s color display indicates whether any of the patient’s brain functions deviate from normal and quantifies the severity of the dysfunction.
BrainScope licenses important patents held by NYU, and the device is being manufactured by BrainScope Co., Inc., a privately held company based in Bethesda, Maryland.
