China sets pricing guidelines for brain-computer interface services

China's National Healthcare Security Administration released pricing guidelines for brain-computer interface (BCI) technologies on Wednesday, paving the way for integrating this futuristic innovation into clinical practice once it gets mature.

The administration had published guidelines for the establishment of price items for neurological medical services, in which it outlined specific fees for invasive BCI implantation and removal, as well as non-invasive BCI adaptation.

BCI enables direct communication between the brain and external devices through implanted electrodes or external sensors. These two brain signal reading approaches also distinguished the two general categories in BCI technology: invasive and non-invasive. 

Contrary to Elon Musk's Neuralink, which adopts a fully invasive brain implant, existing clinical trials in China adopted a semi-invasive device – Neural Electronic Opportunity (NEO), developed by scientists from Tsinghua University led by Hong Bo from the School of Medicine. NEO requires a piece of electrode detector that's placed between the skull and the dura mater, which avoids direct brain tissue damage while still achieving high-quality signal acquisition. 

This approach has been successfully implemented in clinical trials, such as the first surgery at the Capital Medical University Xuanwu Hospital in Beijing. The patient was able to restore hand motions with the assistance of an air-filled glove. 

So far, three patients have undergone surgeries to implant the NEO device. According to Hong, the team plans to complete ​30-50 clinical cases in 2025. The team is also in collaboration with a company to establish a production line at the Zhangjiang Cell Industrial Park in Shanghai that is capable of producing 10,000 sets annually.

Hong said that their next version is expected to be ​as small as a coin, featuring ​64 channels, and utilizing ​lighter materials and advanced chip technology to enhance performance.

Read more: How can China's 'smartbrains' help paralysis patients?