Patients suffering from epilepsy may soon have a new device that could help treat seizures by preventing them altogether. NeuroPace Inc., a medical technology company based out of Silicon Valley, announced the launching of its flagship technology earlier this month, the next-gen RNS System. The company has spent years developing the technology as a means to treat refractory epilepsy, a condition that affects more than 1 million people in the United State alone.

The RNS system is a closed-loop, brain-responsive neurostimulation system that was designed to prevent epileptic seizures by stopping them at the source. The device uses a brain-computer interface that was designed to treat seizures by continuously monitoring brain waves in an effort to recognize each patient’s unique seizure onset fingerprint. This allows the device to continuously monitor the patient’s brain waves for signals of an impending seizure; it is equipped to automatically respond with imperceptible electric pulses that can prevent the seizure before it occurs.

“The launch of the next-gen RNS System is proof of our relentless focus on product innovation,” said NeuroPace CEO Frank Fischer. “According to the National Epilepsy Foundation, 1 in 26 Americans will develop epilepsy in their lifetime, with approximately 150,000 new cases of epilepsy diagnosed annually. An estimated 3 million Americans currently live with epilepsy, with one-third of those patients experiencing seizures despite taking epilepsy medication. The RNS System is a proven treatment option for individuals 18 years of age or older who have disabling partial onset seizures that are not controlled by medication.”

The system itself is composed of a programmable responsive neurostimulator and comes with leads that are placed in the seizure onset area. Patients can actually upload their brain activity data to the online Patient Data Management System (PDMS) where it can be reviewed by physicians who can personalize the individual therapy settings on the device for each patient. Unlike current antiepileptic drugs, the RNS system directly targets the seizure focus and improves seizure control without causing any stimulation side effects or neurocognitive deficits.

“The RNS system is the only treatment that provides us with a ‘window to the brain,’” Fischer said. “Long-term, ambulatory brain activity recordings can be used to optimize therapy and provide physicians with unprecedented insights into each patient’s unique seizure patterns.”

Approved by FDA in November of 2013, the RNS System began multicenter clinical trials in an attempt to demonstrate seizure reduction among 256 patients. Clinical trial data showed 30% of patients achieved a 90% or more seizure reduction, while 29% of patients had at least one period of 6 months or more without any reported seizures of any kind.

The company’s latest model aims to incorporate a bevy of new features that will enable patients to live their lives with fewer interruptions through optimized treatment. The longevity of the device has more than doubled from 3.9 to 8.4 years at medium stimulation settings, and the available memory has also doubled from 0.5 MB to 1.0 MB. The increase in data storage capacity will allow physicians to review a wider set of brain activity data, which will inevitably enable faster therapy optimization.

Fischer said that as the company moves forward with the device, he hopes that the technology can not only improve the lives of epilepsy patients, but eventually evolve to treat other disorders so that more people can begin to have the freedom of a life without seizures.

“Going forward we plan to continue to improve performance, enhance ease of use, and explore other applications of the unique chronic EEG data generated by the device,” he said. “In addition to treating epilepsy, responsive neurostimulation holds the promise of treating other disabling neurological, psychiatric, and chronic disorders that negatively impact the quality of life for millions of patients throughout the world.”