NIA Small Business Showcase: NeuroFieldz Inc.

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The effectiveness of current vision and brain health diagnostic technologies is hampered by a lack of portability, low signal quality, long setup and measurement time, and subjective rather than objective evaluation. Current vision and brain health diagnostic tools are cart-based systems that require patients’ active participation over a 20-minute period. This can lead to misdiagnosis of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and other age-related eye diseases. Studies forecast that more than 19 million people in the United States have intermediate or advanced AMD.

To help remedy this situation, NeuroFieldz Inc. has developed NeuroVEP, a prototype wireless sensor system that uses visual evoked potentials (VEP) by measuring brain activity — in response to visual stimuli — with a proven highly powerful neuromonitoring technique called Electric Field Encephalography (EFEG). NeuroVEP combines this with a virtual reality headset that carries an onboard smartphone, which enables custom visual stimulus patterns and state-of-the-art, artificial intelligence (AI)-powered data analysis to power a portable testing system for vision and brain disorders.

There are currently no commercially available portable VEP systems. NeuroVEP stands to provide optometrists and ophthalmologists — who are authorized to recommend and administer VEP tests — with a product that can integrate visual stimulus, neuromonitoring, and the ability to present separate stimuli to each eye in a portable automated system. Because of its portability and versatility, NeuroVEP can provide new revenue streams by reducing setup and testing times, enabling new diagnostic tests, and expanding current clinic-based practice. NeuroFieldz estimates the service obtainable market for NeuroVEP at $2.4 billion.

Beyond neuro-optical diagnostics, the NeuroVEP is expected to generate new revenues when configured for applications in field-based concussion tests, with diagnosing attention disorders, for visual testing for military personnel, and in neuromarketing.