What happens to your brain chip if its billionaire funder gets bored of the idea?

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2024-05-01 01:00

International

Credit: Carol Ibe, Eugene Major, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Researchers studying neural implants have come to an agreement on what it means to "abandon" the device – ie, for the manufacturer to stop supporting it while it's still implanted in someone's brain. Neural implants will be increasingly abandoned as new products enter the market, the author team writes, but there is little in the way of laws and regulations around this medical tech frontier. The researchers say their definition of "abandonment" could inform these future laws and medical guidelines.

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Journal/
conference: JAMA Network Open

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Norman Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases, USA

Funder: Dr Okun reported serving as a medical advisor to the Parkinson’s Foundation; receiving research grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Parkinson’s Foundation, Michael J. Fox Foundation, Parkinson Alliance, Smallwood Foundation, Bachmann-Strauss Foundation, Tourette Syndrome Association, and University of Florida Foundation; serving as principal investigator of an NIH Training Grant; receiving royalties for publications with Hachette Book Group, Demos, Manson, Amazon, Smashwords, Books4Patients, Perseus, Robert Rose, Oxford University Press, and Cambridge University Press; serving as an associate editor for the New England Journal of Medicine Journal Watch Neurology and JAMA Neurology; participating in continuing medical education and educational activities in the past 12 to 24 months on movement disorders sponsored by WebMD/Medscape, RMEI Medical Education, the American Academy of Neurology, the Movement Disorders Society, Mediflix, and Vanderbilt University; that grants from industry were received by the University of Florida and not Dr Okun; participating as a site principal investigator or co-investigator for several NIH-, foundation-, and industry-sponsored trials without receiving honoraria; and that research projects at the University of Florida receive device and drug donations. Dr Gilbert reported receiving a Royal Society bursary award to attend the Neural Interfaces Summit 2023 and grants from the University of Tasmania EthicsLab during the conduct of the study. Dr Doherty reported receiving devices for research studies from Innocon Medical and grants from Brain Research UK, the Inspire Foundation, and Innovate UK outside the submitted work and owning less than 1% of shares in Amber Therapeutics Ltd, London, which has subsidiaries Bioinduction Ltd (maker of the Picostim and Picostim DyNeuMo, Bristol, UK, in several first-in-human studies) and Finetech Medical Ltd (manufacturer of the Sacral Anterior Root Stimulator). Dr Kubu reported receiving grants from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) during the conduct of the study and having a patent issued. Dr Lázaro-Muñoz reported receiving grants from the NIH. Dr Denison reported receiving supply devices for research from Amber Therapeutics during the conduct of the study and serving as nonexecutive chairman of Mint Neuro, which makes circuits for implants, and a consultant for Cortec, which develops neurotechnology. Dr Giordano reported receiving award UL1TR001409 from the NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences through the Clinical and Translational Science Awards Program, a trademark of the Department of Health and Human Services, part of the Roadmap Initiative Re-Engineering the Clinical Research Enterprise, and National Sciences Foundation Award 2113811-Amendment ID 001 and support from the Henry Jackson Foundation for Military Medicine; Strategic Multilayer Assessment Branch of the Joint Staff, J-39, US Strategic Command, Pentagon; Asklepios Biosciences; and Leadership Initiatives. No other disclosures were reported.

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