SFU invention to hit European markets
The Neurostep – a device that assists people who have paralysis in one leg to walk – will soon be on the market in Europe and, eventually, Canada.
That’s satisfying news to Andy Hoffer, the SFU kinesiologist who spent 30 years developing the device aimed at helping those who suffer from limb immobility due to neurological impairment.
The Neurostep is a pacemaker-like device that is implanted inside the thigh. It uses nerve cuffs to sense and stimulate nerve activity in the paralyzed leg, allowing greater mobility for those suffering from neurological disabilities such as stroke, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury or cerebral palsy.
Hoffer and his team pioneered the design and use of nerve-cuff electrodes and developed specialized amplifiers. He patented assistive-device designs and applications and, in 1997, created an SFU spin-off company, Neurostream Technologies, which was bought by Victhom Human Bionics in 2004.
Hoffer serves on Victhom’s Neurostep clinical advisory board and has been named to its new scientific advisory board, announced Feb. 27. He remains active in Neurostep product development and clinical validation.
Victhom recently obtained Europe’s CE Mark approval for its Neurostep™ System, the first approval of its kind for a closed-loop system (CLS) that uses signals sensed directly from peripheral nerves. The approval paves the way for marketing the Neurostep in Europe and developing patient training activities for hospitals and physicians.
Victhom is also working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to begin clinical trials and eventually introduce the device in America.
Hoffer and his students in SFU’s Neurokinesiology Lab are now focused on developing and testing (in pigs) a reversible, minimally invasive nerve stimulation electrode for “pacing” the human diaphragm muscle.
Their research, funded by an NSERC Idea-to-Innovation grant, could lead to a device that assists breathing and prevents diaphragm-muscle weakness or atrophy in critically ill patients who currently can only be kept alive with mechanical ventilation.