Neuro Kinetics is one of just eight companies serving the military to be highlighted by the magazine.

“We’re honored to be given this distinction by Defense Technology International,” said J. Howison Schroeder, Neuro Kinetics president and CEO. “We believe our work with the military holds great promise. America’s wounded soldiers deserve the best care possible and we are proud to be playing a part to improve early and accurate diagnosis of brain injuries that can have life-long consequences for them.”

Defense Technology International notes that Neuro Kinetics’ research “is critically important, since an estimated 20% of soldiers returning from Afghanistan and Iraq suffer from mild TBIs.”

Neuro Kinetics is collaborating with military medical specialists at U.S. Army Aeromedical Research Laboratory (USAARL) at Fort Rucker (Alabama), Tripler Army Medical Center (Hawaii), The Traumatic Brain Injury Warrior Resilience and Recovery Center at Fort Campbell (Kentucky) and Walter Reed Army Medical Center (D.C.) in the comprehensive research effort.

The coordinated research focuses on using Neuro Kinetics’ I-Portal® NOTC (Neuro-Otologic Test Center) system to evaluate and characterize neuro-otologic and neuro-physiologic, conditions that appear  to indicate otherwise hard-to-detect mTBI as a result of blast exposure. 

A portion of the research is being supported financially by grants from the T.R.U.E. Research Foundation (www. trueresearch.org), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation that assists the military medical community. 

A number of other U.S. military hospitals have installed the I-Portal NOTC system to improve diagnosis and monitoring of returning brain-injured military personnel.  Other federal government medical facilities, including those operated by the Veterans Administration and the National Institutes of Health, also rely on NKI equipment for conducting daily clinical evaluations of patients as well as undertaking a range of research projects.

The coordinated research focuses on using Neuro Kinetics’ I-Portal® NOTC (Neuro-Otologic Test Center) system to evaluate and characterize vestibular, auditory and oculomotor conditions in soldiers suffering from hard-to-detect mTBI as a result of blast exposure.  An estimated 20 percent of soldiers returning from Afghanistan and Iraq suffer from mTBI.

The other military medical facilities in the research project are Tripler Army Medical Center (Hawaii), The Traumatic Brain Injury Warrior Resilience and Recovery Center at Fort Campbell (Kentucky) and Walter Reed Army Medical Center (D.C.).

The military researchers’ purchase of NKI’s I-Portal NOTC system was supported in part by grants from the T.R.U.E. Research Foundation (www.trueresearch.org), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation that assists the military medical community.

The project is expected to run until July 2010.

“It is our honor to be working closely with military researchers on this critically important effort,” said J. Howison Schroeder, NKI president and CEO. “Research suggests that the oculometric measurements included in the I-Portal NOTC’s battery of tests can provide effective neuro-physiologic and vestibular-auditory evaluations for mTBI, and that in turn can improve early screening and treatment.
“Our wounded soldiers deserve the best care possible and we are proud to be playing our part to deliver exactly that.”

The NKI-military collaboration comes as a number of U.S. military facilities have installed the I-Portal NOTC system to improve diagnosis and monitoring of returning brain-injured military personnel.  Numerous other federal government medical facilities, including those operated by the Veterans Administration and the National Institutes of Health, also rely on NKI  equipment for conducting daily clinical evaluations of patients as well as undertaking a wide range of research projects.

The company will present data at the September 14th-17th Battlefield Healthcare Conference (www.battlefieldhealthcare.com) in San Diego about the use of tests incorporated in its I-Portal ® NOTC (Neuro-Otologic Test Center) and I-Portal® VNG (Video Nystagmography) systems for early detection and tracking of mTBI.

Dr. Alex Kiderman, Neuro Kinetics’ chief technology officer, will report on data collected from varied sources, including a case study he co-authored suggesting that specific oculo-motor, optokinetic and vestibular tests conducted through the I-Portal systems can generate results that may identify mTBI not observable by other evaluation technologies, including MRIs.

The tests Kiderman will review include spontaneous nystagmus, pendular tracking, saccades, horizontal and vertical gaze, subjective visual vertical (SVV) and subjective visual horizontal (SVH), head thrust test (HTT), sinusoidal harmonic acceleration (SHA) and dynamic unilateral centrifugation (DUC) tests among others. 

Kiderman’s case study – co-authored by Brian J. McKinnon, MD, MBA, assistant professor, Otology/Neurotology, Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, Medical College of Georgia, and clinical audiologist Terri E. Ives, ScD, AuD, F-AAA, CCC-A – is available on the Neuro Kinetics Web site.

“We believe that neuro-otologic testing can be the objective and important contributor to the proper diagnosis and treatment of mTBI that returning soldiers deserve,” Kiderman said.  “While we have more research to undertake, the early indications are indeed promising.”

Next week’s presentation comes as a number of U.S. military facilities have installed the I-Portal NOTC system to improve diagnosis and monitoring of returning brain-injured military personnel.

In recent months, Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., the Naval Hospital at Camp Pendleton in California and Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii have begun utilizing the I-Portal NOTC. 

Numerous other federal government medical facilities, including those operated by the Veterans Administration and the National Institutes of Health, also rely on Neuro Kinetics’ equipment for conducting daily clinical evaluations of patients as well as undertaking a wide range of research projects.

Kiderman noted that while Neuro Kinetics is best known for its expertise in offering equipment for testing across a range of balance and vestibular disorders, the research into brain injury testing represents an important strategic goal for the company.

“We continue to expand the clinical utility of our equipment,” Kiderman said. “Helping to improve the care of brain-injured soldiers is a top priority for us.”

Source: Neuro Kinetics

The University is using the equipment to test patients for a range of balance and dizziness complaints, said Jaynee Handelsman, Ph.D., the Vestibular Testing Center’s assistant director. NKI’s I-Portal NOTC system features the company’s renowned Barany (rotational) chair, optokinetic ball and Pursuit Tracker™. Those components create an adaptable array of motion, optokinetic and ocular motor stimulus profiles.

Get more details right here.

Be sure to tune in to 1360 AM WMNY from 3-6 p.m. today for the Pittsburgh Technology Council’s next TechVibe Radio Show. The Council’s Audrey Russo and Jonathan Kersting have star-studded cast of local technology entrepreneurs and business leaders lined up for you. Check it out:

John Manzetti from the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse

Maria Fagan/Lisa Casavant from Regulatory & Quality Solutions

Howison Schroeder from NeuroKinetics

Bryce Petit/Aaron Riley of Zeo Technologies

Plus, we’ll be spinning your favorite music between interviews. If you can’t tune in, stream it at Pittsburgh Business Radio.

Cellumen Appoints Dr. Jack A. Reynolds to its Board of Directors

Cellumen, Inc., a discovery toxicology company, announced that industry veteran and former Pfizer executive Dr. Jack A. Reynolds has joined Cellumen’s board of directors. With more than 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, Dr. Reynolds is founder and Principal at JAReynolds & Associates, which is focused on defining new paradigms for improving safety testing and decision making in the pharmaceutical industry.

NeuroKinetics to Release Latest Version of VEST

NeuroKinetics (NKI) , manufacturers of noninvasive medical evaluation equipment used worldwide for balance, vestibular and neurological disorder tests, said today that it will release version 6.7 of its proprietary VEST™ control and analysis software at the upcoming Audiology Now! 2009 – the annual conference of the American Academy of Audiology to be held next month in Dallas. Get more details here.

ANSYS NAMED TO CRO’S 100 BEST CORPORATE CITIZENS LIST; EXPANDS HPC CAPACITY FOR ENHANCED R&D

 ANSYS, Inc., a global innovator of simulation software and technologies designed to optimize product development processes, was named one of the “100 Best Corporate Citizens®” by CRO (Corporate Responsibility Officer). The 2009 ranking analyzes the efforts of companies on the Russell 1000® index in bringing shareholders more value and making employees proud. ANSYS was one of only two engineering simulation organizations that made the list.

Also, ANSYS announced the addition of large-scale high-performance computing (HPC) systems from HP that will enhance the company’s software research and development efforts. The new HP solution expands the organization’s computing capacity and is key to ensuring the continued leadership position of ANSYS in engineering software for HPC scalability.

GSP CONSULTING LAUNCHES NEWLY DESIGNED WEBSITE

GSP Consulting launched their newly constructed website this week, www.gspconsulting.com. The modernized website was designed by Pittsburgh-based Zoltun Design. The expanded site provides easier navigation by establishing separated areas of locations, professionals, practice areas and service offerings. Other updated areas on the website include downloadable literature and reports, news features, press releases and upcoming events. Additionally, a more contemporary color scheme of blue and gray that incorporates GSP’s current brand identity enhances the new site’s appearance.

 With record numbers of American soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with brain injuries, a case study from Neuro Kinetics, Inc. (NKI) suggests that tests utilizing its I-Portal® NOTC (Neuro-Otologic Test Center) system can generate results that may indicate mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBI) that are not detected by other evaluation technologies.

NKI manufactures noninvasive medical test equipment used worldwide in the evaluation of balance, vestibular and neurological disorders.

The details of the new case study are available on NKI’s Web site. The findings are being presented today at an American Balance Society conference in Scottsdale, AZ.

Read more here.