The Helsinki University Hospital in Finland has received significant funding from the renowned Wings for Life Foundation to continue its research into spinal cord injury rehabilitation using Nexstim’s SmartFocus technology.
Wings for Life specifically supports international research focused on finding new treatment methods for spinal cord injury patients whose rehabilitation is known to be highly challenging.
The research group at the BioMag laboratory at Helsinki University Hospital is conducting a study on a new rehabilitation treatment for patients who are paralysed as a result of a spinal cord injury. The studied treatment combines transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) with simultaneous peripheral nerve stimulation. The group will use Nexstim’s NBS system for the TMS in the study. The research group, led by Dr. Anastasia Shulga, has already generated promising preliminary results in spinal cord injury rehabilitation using Nexstim’s NBS system.
An extensive clinical study
The funding from Wings for Life for the Helsinki University Hospital group will be for an initial 2-year period with a possible 1-year extension. This new funding will allow the researchers to conduct an extensive clinical study that will recruit a larger number of patients paralyzed due to spinal cord injuries who are at the subacute stage.
Nexstim’s NBS system, using the unique SmartFocus TMS technology, is the only FDA cleared and CE marked navigated TMS system for pre-surgical mapping of the speech and motor cortices of the brain. Helsinki University Hospital is utilizing the NBS System for chronic spinal cord injury therapy as a research utility only as the NBS has not yet been approved for this therapeutic indication.
“We are pleased that Helsinki University Hospital will be able to continue this important research work designed to open up new opportunities to rehabilitate patients with spinal cord injury. The funding from the renowned Wings for Life foundation highlights not only the quality of the work of this talented research group led by Dr. Shulga, but also the multiple potential indications for our SmartFocus TM technology, including those that are currently seen to be almost untreatable,” says Martin Jamieson, CEO of Nexstim.
