Our Goals
Next-generation implantable neurostimulators enable sensing of neural activity, allowing real-time responsiveness and closed-loop stimulation. Some device systems also incorporate research-enabling features such as wireless streaming and API-based custome programming. Along with unprecedented opportunity, these advanced technologies also pose technical and regulatory challenges for researchers. OpenMind provides a forum for sharing know-how, software tools, templates, reference documents and other resources that can save time and research dollars for individual teams, and accelerate innovation and progress in the field more broadly.
Our goal is to provide investigators with critical elements for the launch and development of their own clinical studies. See our “Tools & Resources” page to navigate to OpenMind tools, and click “Contact Us” to suggest new features orto ask a question of the OpenMind Leadership Team.
The OpenMind Consortium benefits currently-funded clinical research programs while also supporting the entry of new investigators into the rapidly evolving ecosystem of implantable wireless neural interfaces. All Consortium members are encouraged to contribute resources and knowledge and to participate in OpenMind Workshops and Technical Calls.
Meet the OpenMind Leadership Team and Scientific Steering Group.
OpenMind is Public
Typically, medical device manufacturers that provide investigational devices for research use require contracts between institutions and their company. These contracts cover intellectual property rights and govern what information must be kept private. See the NIH BRAIN public private partnerships program for more detailed examples of such contracts. Note that to comply with these contracts, OpenMind resources, including code in the OpenMind GitHub code repository, must be stripped of all proprietary or confidential information by contributing consortium members prior to sharing, thereby enabling their maintenance as a public resource.
It is critical that each user with existing agreements with medical device manufacturers not contribute confidential or proprietary information or data to the public repository.
Membership
OpenMind is open to all members of the resesarch community and includes academic teams, device manufacturers and industry colleagues, patient advocates, neuroethics specialists, and federal stakeholders including the NIH and FDA. Interested in joining our Consortium and keeping abreast of upcoming activities? Join us! Send a quick email to request addition to our contacts list.
Funding
Support for OpenMind is generously provided by the National Institutes of Health and the BRAIN Initiative via U24 Resource Dissemination grant 1U24NS 113637 (Dr. Philip Starr, UCSF, Contact PI).
Learn moreabout the NIH BRAIN Initiative and funding opportunities here:
