The public relations team at St. Jude Medical is keeping busy. A press release this week announced that all of the 136 participants in its DBS device trial had received their implants. The release wasn't clear about the expected length of the trial or what exactly the trial is designed to demonstrate.
It's very encouraging to have competition in this market -- it seems like St. Jude has spurred Medtronic to accelerate innovation of its line of DBS devices. St. J is claiming its Libra device has the "largest battery capacity" in its class, while Medtronic has received FDA approval for an updated Activa that trumpets, among a number of new features, a battery charge monitor and the ability to recharge batteries without surgery. (I'll be checking that out in detail soon.)
It's nice to see Dr. Tagliati and the team at Mt. Sinai in NYC are involved in the Libra trial for PD.
