Israeli company ElMindA has received US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval to market the company’s BNA Analysis system for mapping brain activity. The product will be marketed first for diagnosing head injuries in emergency rooms and for sports medicine, though the FDA approval is for broader user.
In an interview with “Globes,” ElMindA CEO Ronen Gadot said that the company has been preparing to market the product for a year, and that it has a number of signed deals with parties in the medical market.
The BNA Analysis system uses the same principles as an electrocardiogram (EKG ), in other words, it uses electrodes placed on the scalp to non-invasively read brain activity. The system gathers many readings from various spots on the scalp and combines them in an advanced signal processing system, which the company developed, in order to create a clear reading of the electrical activity in the brain. “Other imaging systems, like MRI or CT, show us how the brain is built, which is like reading a map, whereas we show what the brain activity is in real time, which is like a traffic report,” he said.
Gadot added that head injuries in sports are particularly high on the agenda today, since the recent World Cup games, in which there were many complaints about players returning to the pitch without it having been clarified that they were fit to do so, and the risk that this would lead to long-term damage to their ability to function. According to Gadot, the company has a deal with one of the leading sports medicine service providers in the US, which will conduct a baseline test on all its athletes at the beginning of the upcoming sports seasons, so that if they are injured, they will have with what to compare the reading..
ElMindA was established in 2006, based on Ben Gurion University Professor Amir Geva’s technology. The company’s Israeli investors include Nirit Seeds, which has been with the company since its founding, and Sami Sagol Group, which is active in the field of brain research. Other investors include Ira Efron and Robert Kraft, as well as Gadot himself. The company has raised $15 million since its founding.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 6, 2014
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