Brain stimulation software receives FDA approval for use in Parkinson’s disease

Boston Scientific Corp. announced it has received FDA approval for its image-guided software for deep brain stimulation therapy in patients with Parkinson’s disease.

The software, Vercise Neural Navigator with Stimview XT, will allow clinicians to visualize lead placement and stimulation modeling and is engineered to provide patient-specific 3D modeling for personalization of therapy. The software is designed to help localize lead placement, reduce programming time and enable more informed treatment.

“It’s exciting that clinicians will now have access to more sophisticated image-guided programming tools supporting personalized [deep brain stimulation] therapy,” Jill Ostrem, MD, medical director of the Movement Disorders and Neuromodulation Center at the University of California, San Francisco, said in a press release from Boston Scientific.

According to the release, clinicians in a recent study were able to adjust patient stimulation to an average of 20 minutes, which lowered the programming time by 56%.

“This advancement with Stimview XT may also save time for the clinician, as it could help avoid the trial and error in finding the precise location,” Ostrem said. “Prolonged periods of time in adjusting stimulation settings can be stressful and tiring for patients.”