There are approximately 2.87M U.S. TBI emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and deaths annually. 1M people in the U.S. and an estimated 1M people worldwide are living with Parkinson’s. Nearly 60 million people worldwide and 5.7M people are living with dementia in the U.S. of which Alzheimer’s accounts for 60-70 percent. Approximately 4 percent of Americans will develop epilepsy in their lifetime and nearly 24,000 new cases of CNS cancer were detected in 2019. Neurologic disorders frequently have psychiatric disorder or mental health comorbidities requiring related diagnosis, prevention and treatment. As of 2011, nearly 100 million Americans were affected by at least one of >1,000 neurologic diseases. Disparities and inefficiencies exist in treatment and prevention modalities throughout the neurology field. Yet, technologies and therapies exist and are under-development that hold promise.
Example from Sport
Head and spine injury has been reported to occur in up to 47% of skiing or snowboarding injuries and is the predominant cause of death in these sports. The consequences of these injuries have a significant connection to many diseases and conditions with the main cause of death and serious disability in bicycle accidents being traumatic brain injury (TBI). Bicycling-related head injuries and adverse outcomes remain significant, despite increased helmet usage. Significant interest in sporting product innovation exists but funding droughts exist for enabling clinically-impactful & commercially salient products.