Expanding Horizons in Neuroprosthetics: A Conversation with Andreas Forsland

In this episode of the Neural Implant Podcast, host Ladan Jiracek engages in an insightful dialogue with Andreas Forsland, founder and CEO of Cognixion. The discussion covers Cognixion's pioneering augmented reality headset with EEG sensing, designed to enhance communication for individuals with speech and motor challenges. Andreas describes the journey from creating a speech augmentation device to developing a versatile platform, the Axon-R, which is now being utilized by health systems and researchers for various clinical applications. They explore the platform's form factor, capabilities, and its role in empowering others to create specialized applications. 

 

Top 3 Takeaways:

• "We aimed to make it easy for both non-technical and technical users to build simple research applications as well as complex, immersive commercial applications. Initially, it was an internal product we developed for rapid prototyping and exploring neurophysiology. But we realized many others wanted the same capabilities to build their own apps."
• "Go ahead and integrate with Apple Vision Pro or a Meta Quest device, but be aware that you're going to face a lot of problems. The clinical trial process is expensive and time-consuming, and what we've found is that some people who’ve tried this route end up with only 10 to 15 percent usable data. Wasting 80 to 85 percent of your data because of poor technology or failure to meet IRB standards for medical safety and efficacy is a huge waste. If you're pursuing anything in healthcare, you need to build on a reliable platform like Cognixion."
• "You could invest in 10 software-as-a-medical-device (SMD) applications, which are subscription-based or software-based apps that deliver clinically valid outcomes. Building and validating such an application might cost anywhere from $3 to $10 million to bring it to commercialization. In contrast, building a traditional medical device could cost anywhere from $25 to $200 million, usually for just one indication. The key cost savings here is that you don’t need to invest in bespoke hardware—we've already invested over $25 million in developing the validated hardware and platform."

 

00:45 "Do you want to explain your product and introduce yourself better than I just did?"

04:45  "So the platform, what does it look like? What's the form factor?

10:00  "Where would where would they likely use it?"

14:45 "How does it compare to implantable technologies like Synchron or Neuralink? Obviously, with a wearable-only technology, the fidelity must be lower, correct?"

25:15 "What kind of savings does this represent? How much does it help others who want to develop this type of technology?

28:45  "So how would you prevent other companies from doing something like this?"

33:45  "What role does AI play in your guys company?"

39:00  "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"