Synaptive Medical’s BrightMatter technology is now available at Ochsner Health System and St. Tammany Parish Hospital (STPH) in Louisiana.

"[BrightMatter] allows us to safely operate on patients with tumors or other lesions near eloquent parts of the brain," Dr. Marcus Ware, senior physician, neurosurgery, Ochsner Health System, told HCB News. "This widens the scope of operations that we can perform, and enhances the safety of those and more standard operations."

The technology, which received FDA clearance in April 2015, leverages diffusion tensor imaging during an MR to highlight white matter tracts in the patient’s brain. Complex calculations are then made to generate a 3-D, color map of the brain.
The map can help physicians better diagnose conditions such as cancer, epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease. It can also be used to plan surgery as well as provide 3-D navigation support during the procedure.

The technology is integrated into the hospital’s EHR so that patient information can be displayed in a storyline. That enables the treating physicians to see all pathology, scan and treatment data on one platform.

"Our neurosurgeons are very happy to have this technology," said Ware. "We anticipate that this will broaden the scope of treatment for the many different diseases that we treat. These include, but are not limited to, brain tumors, epilepsy, functional disorders, cerebrovascular disorders and trauma."

This year, BrightMatter was also acquired by Oklahoma University Medical Center (OU Medicine), Legacy Health in Oregon and Northwell Health in New York. OU Medicine, which deployed the technology in May, performs over 400 brain tumor operations per year.

“For years we have been operating on the brain the way it looks, now we can operate on the way it really is,” Dr. Michael Sughrue, associate professor, founding member, and current director of the Comprehensive Brain Tumor Center at OU Medicine, said at the time.

The acquisition of BrightMatter builds on earlier investments Ochsner and STPH made in neuroscience. Since 2015, Ochsner hired two neurosurgeons and five neurologists to care for west St. Tammany patients.

STPH also opened a new neuroscience unit of intensive and medical/surgical care suites as well as a larger operating suite to perform complex neurosurgeries that use robotic cameras, brain navigation devices, 3-D visualization and high-field microscopes.

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