Translating patient brain signals into outcome measures

Student: Anshul Dhingra, 2019-2020

Sponsor: Medtronic, Dublin, Ireland

Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) is a neurosurgical procedure used as a treatment for movement disorders such as Parkinson’s, essential tremor, and dystonia. Medtronic has designed a neurostimulator which sends electrical impulses, through implanted electrodes, to specific target areas in the brain which changes brain activity in a controlled manner and effectively treats these movement disorders.

Medtronic’s next generation DBS neurostimulator, the Percept PC, will incorporate recent advances in Medtronic technology that allow recording brain signal data through the DBS leads implanted in the brain. Their new adaptive DBS system offers patient-tailored therapies with potential improvements in therapy efficacy, efficiency and side effects.

The primary purpose of this project will be to scope an analytics project aimed at evaluating viable brain state and patient outcome metrics. Through this, Medtronic hopes to launch the Percept PC and revolutionize DBS therapy across the world.