Neurotech initiatives in Switzerland aim at leapfrogging brain health care

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Trick­ing the brain into re-wiring itself (Swiss news):

“Swiss neu­ro­science start-ups and labs are find­ing nov­el hi-tech solu­tions to help patients despite a depress­ing glob­al lack of treat­ments for brain dis­or­ders…Swiss firm Mind­Maze has also fused VR tech­nol­o­gy with neu­ro­science. The EPFL spin-off has devised sev­er­al appli­ca­tions includ­ing ‘Mind­Play’, an inex­pen­sive reha­bil­i­ta­tion prod­uct to help stroke and brain injury patients recov­er use of their limbs…

In Switzer­land, the Lake Gene­va region, and in par­tic­u­lar EPFL are key play­ers in neuroscience.…it is a dri­ving force, with over 100 peo­ple work­ing on the project based at Geneva’s Cam­pus Biotech…

Unlike heart dis­ease and can­cer, which have seen major strides in drug devel­op­ment by big phar­ma, no new ther­a­pies have been approved to treat Alzheimer’s in a decade. Between 2002 and 2012, 99.6% of expen­sive tri­als of drugs aimed at pre­vent­ing, cur­ing or improv­ing the symp­toms of Alzheimer’s failed or were dis­con­tin­ued, com­pared with 81% for cancer.

Experts argue this may be because tri­als are con­duct­ed too late, in patients whose con­di­tion has already gone too far…Prevention cur­rent­ly offers the clear­est way forward.”

Learn more:

• Per­va­sive Neu­rotech­nol­o­gy: A Ground­break­ing Analy­sis of 10,000+ Patent Fil­ings Trans­form­ing Med­i­cine, Health, Enter­tain­ment and Business
• Info­graph­ic on the Dig­i­tal Brain Health Mar­ket 2012–2020