AiM Medical Robotics has announced a collaboration with Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH; Boston, USA), and the Surgical Navigation and Robotics (SNR) Lab at Harvard, to validate its cutting-edge robot for deep brain stimulation (DBS) in Parkinson’s disease patients. AiM recently entered into a clinical research agreement with the Clinical Trial Office at BWH as well.
The study will take place in BWH’s advanced multimodality image-guided operating (AMIGO) suite—a state-of-the-art clinical research facility. According to a company press release, this collaboration builds upon the longstanding and successful joint research efforts of AiM’s chief executive officer, Gregory Fischer, and Pedro Moreira and Noby Hata of the SNR Lab, with Moreira set to be the lead investigator for the present trial at BWH.
The team’s previous work includes a successful 30-patient trial for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-guided, robot-assisted prostate cancer biopsy. In this new endeavour, they plan to utilise AiM’s stereotactic neurosurgery robot to accurately deliver DBS leads with real-time MRI guidance for Parkinson’s patients. AiM has also announced it will be collaborating with BWH’s Rees Cosgrove on this “groundbreaking” project.
In addition, AiM recently reported another collaboration with the BWH clinical team—a successful cadaver trial at the PracticePoint MedTech accelerator facility, located at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), demonstrating precise delivery of bilateral DBS leads using real-time MRI guidance.
During the trial, the team showcased AiM’s robot in a fully direct, MRI-guided procedure for bilateral DBS lead placement in a human cadaver, with the surgery performed by Cosgrove. The AiM platform demonstrated success in completing a full procedure entirely within the MRI suite, achieving high levels of efficiency and accuracy. The trial also highlighted the system’s ability to identify and account for intraoperative ‘brain shift’, a phenomenon that frequently occurs during these surgeries and can impact outcomes, the company notes in its recent release.
AiM has announced a partnership with Canada-based medtech company Synaptive Medical too. This collaboration will integrate the latter’s Modus Nav neuro-navigation software with AiM’s stereotactic neurosurgery robot, enabling enhanced visualisation, navigation and control, the release adds.
The Modus Nav platform utilises intraoperative MRI updates to ensure precise targeting, and MRI-based localisation and tracking of AiM’s robot. By combining AiM’s MRI-compatible, robotic stereotactic frame, Synaptive’s advanced navigation software, and intraoperative MRI, the two companies claim to have created an optimised workflow that delivers “unparalleled precision and efficiency” for deep brain interventions.
