4 min reading time

Group member Tim Hopper wrote me yesterday with tragic news.

His son, 19-year-old Ryley, dove head first into a pool and broke his neck at C6. They almost lost him.

Ryley is now recuperating at The Shepherd Center in Atlanta, paralyzed from the chest down.

Tim writes, “I want to be sure I’m tied into ALL the companies researching spinal cord injury and hoped you could help?”

What better use of today’s global announcement?

Let’s support one of our own with information. Please list any and all spinal cord injury resources you can in today’s comments.

Learn more about Ryley’s condition at http://medgroup.biz/TheFight4Ry

++++++++++

What Can Amazon’s Echo Do for Healthcare?

A really interesting talk at http://medgroup.biz/AMZN-Echo-Healthcare at the next MedCity ENGAGE event in La Jolla, CA on October 18-19, 2016.

That’s just one item on the packed agenda for this patient engagement event. I can’t make it – but wish I could!

If you go, please take notes and share with me / the group.

And use code DIGIMED with my compliments to get in at the lowest price.

++++++++++

Discussions

Clinical trial for Class 1 instrument in the UK

Brexit and the CE mark. Where now for the UK’s MHRA and the British Notified Bodies?

What do you consider to be adequate market validation for a medical device startup?
http://bit.ly/I-feel-validated

A New Head

New medical device distributor/wholesaler concept

Which criteria is critical for success in your medtech product development?

++++++++++

Make it a great week.

Joe Hage
Medical Devices Group Leader

P.S. We park the good stuff at http://medgroup.biz/MDG-SITE Register there now to stay up to date.

---

Cinde Waller
*LION* President and Founder of TempOrthotics, Inc.
Prayers for the family.

Peter S. Ford
Founder and Chairman, Control Bionics
If Ryley cannot communicate, please Google NeuroSwitch… and later this month, NeuroNode with immediate EMG controlled communication and AT on Apple, Google, Android and PC.

Jane Evans
Therapy supported exercise for all members of the community
Mark Pollock Trust – Trinity College Dublin
https://www.markpollocktrust.org

Emmanuel B. de Haller
Sr. Field Product Manager at Zimmer Biomet
Hocoma and the work done at Bagrist University Clinic, Prof. Martin Schwab at the EtH Zürich as weel as Prof. Grégoire Curtin are surely good contacts.

Fernando Leon
Vice President of Sales/Marketing – Helping Businesses Reduce IT Costs and Operate More Efficient.
Prayers to the family.

Roy Manns
Retired Plastics & Polymer Design and Engineering
My prayers are with him I nearly lost my first born who used jump from the roof into our Pool but he ha livevtob50+ and got in more trouble that science cannot cure but he is healthy and still trying to be a Millionaire but has ADHD. And probably Bipolar God bless him.

Luis Daniel M.
🎬
It is so sad to hear that the young man has suffered such a severe injury. Perhaps there are options in some of the European trials:

http://m.eurostemcell.org/factsheet/spinal-cord-injuries-how-could-stem-cells-help

Vimal Buck
Senior Researcher at Center for Design and Manufacturing Excellence
Tim, I am very sorry to hear about this. I will pray for you and your son. I don’t want to offer any sort of false hope, but I am involved in a project at work very much in its infancy around a neural bypass technology and there are similarities between Ian Burkhart’s and your son’s injury. Battelle is continuing with the work mentioned here (it is very similar to the brain gate technology) https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/apr/13/brain-implant-paralysed-man-regain-partial-control-hand-neural-bypass
Some other coverage here :http://spectrum.ieee.org/the-human-os/biomedical/bionics/now-theres-a-way-around-paralysis-neural-bypass-links-brain-to-hand the work was published in nature http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v533/n7602/full/nature17435.html
Chad Bouton is no longer at Battelle but is at Feinstein doing Neural research. The current system is very much a lab system in its infancy but there is progress going on in this area and I thought you should know.

Dr. Darwyn Bartsch
President at Excel In Health Physical Therapy
Dear Tim: So sorry to hear about Ryley’s accident. While I know that there is a long recovery road ahead, breathing strength will be critical through it all. Once Ryley is off the breathing support equipment, consider The EmBrace Exercise Device (from Upper Core Technologies) designed to strengthen the accessory breathing muscles, and thereby improve his endurance, speech and cough strength. Wishing Ryley all the best in his recovery.

Steve Huckaby
Senior Mechanical Engineer at Battelle
I don’t have a recommendation about treatment but I will suggest looking at Meetobi.com. It’s an assistive feeding device that may or may not be relevant for you. It’s intended to give those with limited movement the ability to feed themselves which can have very positive affects on their mental well being. Those guys also seem tied into the world of assistive devices and research in related areas. Maybe they could point you in some useful directions. I’m sorry this is all I can do for you. I truly wish you the best of luck.

Steven Harward
Strategic Account Manager at Future Electronics
Tim, while I cant make a recommendation about treatment facilities, I do want to wish you and your family all of the best during this difficult time. I will be praying for you to find the treatment you’re looking for and that the Lord (The Great Physician) will heal your son according to His will and timing.

Jackie Bojor
Emerging Europe Market Entry and Development Consulting: Market Research, B2B, M&A, Sourcing in: Romania, Poland etc.
Dear Tim & Ryley – from Romania we send you best wishes and our prayers for a full recovery! <3 Thanks, Joe for keeping the group so tightly together. Most appreciated! <3 Tony Bucalo
Healthcare Sales Professional
We will keep the Hopper family in our thoughts and prayers. Dr. Susan Harkema (Univ of Louisville) and Dr. Reggie Edgerton (UCLA), have been doing some phenomenal research in this area – most notably, helping patients regain voluntary movement through he placement of pacemaker technology in the spine.

Steve Anderson
CEO at Preceptis Medical
Tim, we do not know each other but your son and family are in our prayers. I have a son with spina bifida who is non-ambulatory, and he is an incredible joy to everyone he knows. Be strong and know that Ryley will have his own gifts to still offer the world.

Graham Creasey
Stanford University
The Shepherd Center in Atlanta is well connected to the only current clinical trial in this country for stem cells in spinal cord injury, sponsored by Asterias Inc.
The most important initial process is to get comprehensive spinal cord injury rehabilitation of the type well provided by Shepherd Center in Atlanta.

Jackie H. Gonzalez
CEO at J29 Associates
Tim, I’m so sorry this happened; know that your son and your family are in my prayers. I saw the ReWalk (Argo) introduced and used by a paralyzed veteran at AdvaMed 2013/4. Parker Harrafin is developing a similar product – Indego, being developed out of Vanderbilt. I hope this info is useful.

Ivana Balic
CEO and Founder of SonoView Acoustic Sensing Technologies
I wish your son the best and full recovery. I am not in that business but, today, I was at a presentation about Metronics’ business in Spinal implants. It is less known but Medtronic is doing that as well. I hope this information might be of help.

Sondra Westly
Inside Sales Manager at VORTRAN Medical Technology 1, Inc.
I wish you and your son the best in his recovery. Also it makes me not feel.so sorry for myself, as 4 wks ago, I woke up as a fit and athletic female, but then went mountain biking. I crashed, was airlifted to the closest hospital with a trauma center. I had sugery for my L femur, fractured in 3 places, and have been an invalid for 4 werks so far, and 4 weeks more, I hope, until I can at least ditch my walker. My prayers are with you both!!

Jayne Morgan, M.D.
Director Of Innovation and Research Development at Piedmont Healthcare
Awful news to hear. Even though my area of interest is Cardiovascular biotech and Artificial Intelligence, let’s continue to push technology forward in all disciplines such that these injuries are not permanent.