There are many standout moments in the medical drama ‘The Pitt’, but one which resonated directly with me was back in Season 1 when an elderly patient completely catches the emergency department staff off guard. He knows far more about trauma triage and emergency procedures than anyone expects and it’s only later in the episode that we discover why when his son proudly explains that decades ago, he worked for the Freedom House Ambulance Service. For many of us it was an introduction to one of the most remarkable, unsung chapters in modern medical history. For me, it immediately sparked a connection to someone on our own team working in that very same city today.

NEXR Foundation has been invited to submit a Full Grant Application to Spinal Research's Neurotechnology Clinical Pilot Study programme, following the successful assessment of its initial Letter of Intent. The invitation represents an important milestone for NEXR as it moves its closed-loop neurotechnology platform from engineering development towards clinical evaluation in people living with spinal cord injury.

For decades, virtual reality in medicine has been judged by a very different standard from virtual reality in entertainment, and that’s understandable. A video game is expected to transport you somewhere. A clinical application is expected to work.

In January 2024, my wife Fiona suffered a cervical spinal cord injury. Overnight, our lives became immersed in a world of intensive care units, rehabilitation wards, wheelchairs, physiotherapy and occupational therapy. Like so many families entering that world for the first time, we encountered extraordinary clinicians - people working with skill, compassion and determination under immense pressure.

In popular culture, the story of neurotechnology is often told through a single, dramatic moment. We see the headlines, watch the demo videos, or read the press releases: a new brain-computer interface is implanted, a new robotic exoskeleton is strapped on, a switch is flicked, and suddenly a person who was paralyzed moves their hand or takes a step.