As much as modern medicine understands about movement disorders, there's still so much science has yet to unravel about diseases that rob the body of control of over its movement, like Huntington's Disease and Parkinson's Disease.
Great Lakes NeuroTech, a new Cleveland-based spinoff from Cleveland Medical Devices Inc. (CMDI), is hoping to help change that with products that will help researchers unlock the remaining mysteries of the diseases and maybe, someday, help point the way to a cure.
The company, still based at Cleveland Medical's Euclid Avenue campus, was formed with a mandate to market and manufacture the parent company's already burgeoning clinical motor assessment and therapy systems, while focusing on the research and development of the next generation of systems.
"The way Cleveland Medical was set up, there were three divisions -- one for sleep disorder monitoring systems, one for movement disorders and another for research," says Maureen Phillips, sales and marketing manager for NeuroTech. "There were so many disciplines, it was hard for us to concentrate on any one. Being spun off allows us to focus on the work being done on movement disorders, and make an impact there."
The new company's first target is Parkinson's Disease, the degenerative disorder of the central nervous systems that results in uncontrollable tremors and, in extreme cases, tremors so prevalent its victims are unable to move at all. Already, NeuroTech products such as KinetiSense, Kinesia and Kinesia HomeView are in use at leading national research centers and clinics, helping researchers and doctors monitor signals sent from the brain to the body, and the body's reaction to those signals.
NeuroTech products, including portable and wireless monitors, allows doctors to monitor patients both in clinical settings and at home, 24 hours a day.
"They can give doctors the total picture of what patients experience on a day-to-day basis," says Phillips, adding that it also helps current treatments. "Using that information, we're not only learning more about the disease, we're able to change medications, change dosage or change when current patients take medications, depending on how their body reacts to different treatments. The ultimate goal is better and more accurate information, which will allow us to improve the quality of life, even though they're living with this disease."
Source: Maureen Phillips, Sales and Marketing Manager
Writer: Dave Malaska