BLOCKsynop, Johns Hopkins APL to commercialize advanced monitor

Highland-based medical technology company BLOCKsynop Inc. has signed an agreement with Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) to develop and bring to market a novel monitor for determining the location and strength of neural blocks used in surgery and during recovery.

Research and subsequent advances for this technique have been ongoing for 25 years at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions and APL.

BLOCKsynop is led by CEO Kristen Rockenbach, MBA; Chief Technology Officer Wayne Sternberger, Ph.D.; and Chief Medical Officer Robert S. Greenberg, MD.

Sternberger, a systems engineer in the areas of oceanographic and biomedical sensor systems, and Dr. Greenberg, with experience in pediatrics, anesthesiology, critical care medicine and pain management, are the co-inventors of the BLOCKsynop Neural Blockade Monitor (NBM).

The BLOCKsynop NBM is novel and unique because it is non-invasive, passive, quantitative, and objective in measuring neural blocks. Not only does it provide a new and precise measure, but it can be used in patients who cannot or will not express themselves such as infants and non-verbal patients. The BLOCKsynop NBM has the potential to provide new and unparalleled means to reduce failed nerve blocks, limit anesthetic toxicity, optimize analgesic need, and improve patient management.