Profile

In 2001, San Bernardino neurologist and entrepreneur Ken Jordan was in dire need of additional prototypes of his brain wave test invention undergoing clinical trials.

Story continues below

Photo By Dan Elliott

Ann Perry, left, Kenneth Jordan and Anita Schneider are principal partners of Jordan NeuroScience Inc. maker of the BraiNet, an EEG electrode placement template.

A group of 30 or 40 young people at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Riverside came to the rescue. A church member and technologist on Jordan's staff at his practice, Jordan NeuroServices Inc., asked for their help.

The youngsters sewed elastic template straps together and punched holes in the straps to hold electrodes. They used markers to draw colored circles on the template holes to coordinate with colored electrode wires.

They made about 150 prototypes of the BraiNet, a disposable, color-coded, head-shaped template for attaching electrodes to the scalp and performing rapid, computerized brain wave tests without the expertise of technologists.

The BraiNet helps medical personnel determine in 10 to 15 minutes, rather than the typical two to three hours, whether a head injury, stroke or coma victim is experiencing silent brain seizures. Silent seizures have no outward signs and can result in death or permanent brain damage if not detected quickly.

"We were using them a lot in the emergency room especially," said Anita Schneider, vice president of marketing and sales for Jordan NeuroScience. Jordan established the commercial venture in 1996 to develop the BraiNet and other products.

Five years later, Jordan's company, is selling the BraiNet in Europe and the United States. The company is seeking is $1 million to $1.5 million from investors, its first outside funding sources.

The firm wants to develop patented software products related to the BraiNet. Jordan wants to hire a marketing and sales staff and licensing experts for its patented BraiNetwork product.

The network has applications for existing networks. It allows off-site neurologists to record and read brain wave tests and provide medical guidance.

The BraiNet is a patented, trademarked and federally approved brain wave test system. The company began selling BraiNet between December 2005 and January 2006.The elastic-strapped BraiNet fits like a hat over a patient's head. It comes in child, adult, neonate and custom sizes and sells for $35. As of Jan. 3, the company had sold $25,000 worthof product to hospitals, EEG equipment manufacturers and medical supply distributors, Jordan said. The firm hopes to tap the ambulance company market as well.

Story continues below

This month the startup began producing the neonate caps for premature infants in neonatal intensive care units.

"We expect it to be a hot product for us," Schneider said

Jordan paid for development of BraiNet with his medical practice and personal funds.

He faced the challenge of running his diagnostic neurology practice and his commercial venture simultaneously. "As the entrepreneurial elements became more time-consuming and promising, I made the decision to reduce the number of hours at my practice," he said. Jordan now works three days a week at his neurology practice and devotes the remainder to his commercial company.

Typical brain wave tests, called electroencephalograms, or EEGs, require operation by an EEG technologist and diagnosis by a neurologist who may not be available in an emergency. The test involves time-consuming measuring for electrode placement. The pre-measured, color-coded BraiNet connects to EEG machines. Its simplicity allows nurses, respiratory therapists and other care givers trained on the system to quickly perform brain wave tests.

"[The BraiNet] is more accurate than having patients count their fingers or remember their address," Jordan said. He pioneered research on silent seizures between 1989 and 1991. He presented his findings in 1991 at an annual conference of the American Academy of Neurology.

"I've seen children, young mothers and teens who have died because their brains were not monitored in time," he said.

There is a need for Jordan's inventions, but his company faces resistance to change in the medical community and skepticism over dealing with yet another new medical product, said Marc Nuwer, professor of neurology at the University of California Los Angeles Medical Center.

Remote communication between off-site doctors and doctors is common in operating rooms, but not in emergency rooms, he said.

"He's [Jordan] incrementally changing things that exist. ... He has to sell emergency rooms and local neurologists on the idea that this a convenience for them and medically important," Nuwer said.

A competitive product called Electro-Cap has existed for 20 years, but is more complicated than the BraiNet and requires operation by an EEG technologist, Nuwer said.

"Doctors have faced these types of learning curves before. Once they're made aware of the implication to patients, as long as it's an easy, intuitive solution that is both logistical and economical and that serves a crucial, critical need, they ... not only use it but embrace it," Jordan said.

The BraiNet saves minds and personalities and is "a huge business opportunity," Jordan said.