Bridging the gap between neuroscience and real clinical needs of patients suffering from neurobehavioral condition through a non-ninvasive treatment
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Novel, Non-Pharma Ways to Treat Depression with Mehran Talebinejad, CEO at NeuroQore, Inc. was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the latest audio-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors. Sonix is the best way to convert your audio to text in 2019.
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Saul Marquez:
Welcome back to the Outcomes Rocket. Saul Marquez here, today have the privilege of hosting Mehran Talebinejad. He’s the CEO at NeuroQore. He is a Biomedical Engineer with advanced entrepreneurial skills that led him to be named as one of Invest Ottawa’s National Capital Region’s 100 RisingStar CEOs in 2012. In 2014, they designated him the title of Honorary RisingStar CEO for the advancement of his company NeuroQore, founded in 2012, along with his colleague Adrian D.C. Chan. He has created partnerships with investors, universities, and medical facilities that have helped him and his partners raise significant capital funds. He remains as effective in a business setting as he does in practice and research. As a hands on CEO, Mehran aims for giant leaps and breakthroughs in the growth of his research, which centers in magnetic neuro modulation for the benefit of improving a patient’s life. This provides a high reward both within the scope of the company as well as with patient care. Creating his own company has allowed him to execute his own visions and ideas while experiencing humility and an immense satisfaction as he is able to witness patients move into remission after having suffered from devastating chronic disorders. It’s a true pleasure and privilege to host him on the podcast here today. And with that, I open the mike to him, Mehran, to fill in any of the blanks in the intro that I may have missed. Mehran, welcome.
Mehran Talebinejad:
Thank you so much for inviting me. That was a great intro. That’s me.
Saul Marquez:
Awesome. I love it. And so Mehran, tell us what made you get into the health sector?
Mehran Talebinejad:
I came into the health sector from the earth sciences. I was fascinated with the brain, as we mentioned in the introduction that led me to studying biomedical engineering. And I remember the final days of my future just getting my postdoctoral make due to the virus in Montreal. I remember we had so many interesting, potentially, important tools in the neuroscience. And on the other hand, we have so many people who are suffering from different neurobehavioral condition and then with this gap in between, we certainly are talking about cool things and great potential. On the other hand, patients are suffering and I think it was my calling to bridge the two, bring some of the tools we have in neuroscience in order to actually address the real clinical needs of patients who are suffering. I didn’t plan to come into the medical sector, but basically the attraction to the brain, interest in the brain and experimental neuroscience brought to me from non-human crime is experimentation to actual clinical setting to be able to help patients who are suffering from different neurobehavioral condition.
Saul Marquez:
A fascinating story, an interesting way that those two paths crossed. So what would you say Mehran is something that needs to be on health leaders agenda today and how are you and your company approaching it?
Mehran Talebinejad:
Today believe it or not, we have a very evidence-based and advanced medical science, the internal medicine, but brain sciences inefficiently behavioral sciences that are kind of remote from their model. I think it’s very important for our leaders to gain bridge the gap between internal medicine, brain sciences, and behavioral sciences because in this day and age. Behavioral conditions, unconsciously awaiting mental health, but in general, brain health…
Saul Marquez:
Yeah.
Mehran Talebinejad:
Is a huge, huge issue. And unfortunately, the remote wrong internal medicine. But we have had great progress in diagnosis and treatment of different types of cancers and different types of non brain related disorders in good condition based on evidence, based on science. But unfortunately, the brain, we have limited access to the brain, obviously. And explain to leader we must really take seriously bridging this gap between brain health and internal medicine so that we have access to effective treatment and effective diagnosis like other areas of medicine. With the brain health as well.
Saul Marquez:
Well, I think it’s becoming a theme Mehran and you know, more and more people are starting to have an awakening as it relates to a focus on brain health, mental health and really the brain as trying to figure out a way to understand the health of it. So I love to hear from you what you and your team are doing that’s different and how it’s creating better outcomes.
Mehran Talebinejad:
Is sure more treatments or behavioral conditions, brain health conditions today. I started where social I must carry a team in cognitive behavioral therapy or some form of popularity because conventionally, historically, the easiest way to interface with the brain is the ways we can talk to someone. And that’s great. And that’s very effective in certain conditions. However, it could also have a lot of limitations. There is one other advantage, though. When we started our work, we had a platform which was basically actually go to a range of different we will behave like sort of… in 2010, I remember while we were exploring where we can apply this platform and where we can have the most impact in terms of helping patients. Something happened in my life which was really life changing that she’s a 14 year old girl watching, which is shown in all the wrong video to tell lies. And that is a very. I never heard of suicide before that. But to see somebody I know in the public eye to her life when she was 14 years old, coming from a prominent family and having financial issues, having parents who are very quality people, very intellectual people, I realize suicidality, suicidal behavior, suicidal ideation in children, especially a huge problem that you have a long way to go. And basically, I remember for my own research, I went to the children of the lowest turn on very our on and they ask them, “what do you do when somebody like Darren comes in here? And basically they’re telling you they are suicidal, they might hurt them or your parents bring them.” And the answer was talk therapy. The answer was, we’re going to talk to them and we’ll try to make them feel better. Maybe we might give them some medication, namely assess their eyes or else in their eyes that have been around for decades. But in general, a fraction of them get satisfactory lock and most of them end up coming back to the same emergency room or in this case, very rich person who failed cognitive behavioural therapy, who failed preliminary first line, second line of investigation. Remain suicidal and at the end of the day took their lives. And that’s a very big problem that I talk to my team. I talk to my Co-founder during chat. And we really decided to address this issue because we realized there are not many people who were talking about suicidality in children with a social stigma. And it’s a real problem, because if you save somebody who’s 14 years old, you are basically saving a couple of 10 years of potential for life in life for these people and you’re all for helping with a family. And and basically, when you friends are on some maybe a child, this 14 year old, to come out of that nightmare of having a lot of long being suicidal. So we we said, you know what? We want to do this. This. We are going to provide a treatment for those who have no other option. And they do have an option in most cases when you have treatment resistant depression, children and people who are basically showing intractable suicidal behavior, very hard to control suicidal behavior. In those fences, electoral shock therapy or electroconvulsive therapy is the next option. But believe it or not, many, many patients reject that. Many parents reject electroshock therapy for their children, especially because in most children, brain development might be affected. And that electroshock therapy, also known as electroconvulsive therapy, has revealed severe cognitive side effects such as memory loss. And it’s a no no for children. So we decided to do it differently. We decided to take our platform, which is basically an alternative for electroshock therapy, using electromagnetic waves and really focus, really focus on this problem and that has been what we’ve been doing since 2010. In the last nine years, we’ve been laser focused on treatment of children who have no other option and basically are exhibiting suicidal behavior. If you don’t watch them for a minute, they might commit suicide. And believe it or not, when we started this issue nine years ago in Canada and when we look at the stats in North America, including Canada in the U.S., despite all efforts in the last couple of decades to reduce suicide, the rate of suicide is on the rise. We have had increased the rate of suicide in 49 states in the US and they’re increasing by double digits since 90. And the issue, again, we identified is we have access to limited treatment options. Again we are limited to certain medication, Cox Therapy, an option like electroshock therapy, to a no no or meditation. And to the outcomes, they’re generally disappointing and we decided to do it in a different way, focused on a problem that pretty much no one else is focused on and take what we have in neuroscience to really, really focus and capitalize on them. We’re making this a practical solution for those who really need it and so that you understand the dimensions of this problem, you approximately have 45 million children in the US aging between twelve to 19 and within this four to five million children within 12 to 19, 17.7% of them consider suicide. That’s a number from CDC, which is staggering. Almost 20%, almost one in five children consider suicide. Almost 8.6% of them attempted\ suicide. Approximately one in 10 children in the U.S. in the year 2019 attempt suicide and approximately 1.5 million of them, around 2% of them, end up in the emergency room needing medical attention, which is unacceptable. Those numbers are staggering. This problem is unacceptable. Believe it or not, it’s increasing. The suicide rate is on the rise. And we’ve been to doing something different compared to conventional treatment options you choose.
Saul Marquez:
So Mehran definitely appreciate the walk through here and summing up the problem. What are you and your company doing that’s different? That’s working better?
Mehran Talebinejad:
So magnetic brain stimulation has been around for a couple of Beijing. Basically, to my understanding in 18, in 1980’s, the group of scientists that the University of Shot in the UK, they invented this type of neural modulation that they they realize electro shock therapy that they’ve been along for more than 100 years is a very effective treatment for the brain. That is in the brain you have neural circuits. And if you apply electrical currents to those circuit, you could manipulate the connectivity between these very… and basically, in other words,to rewire brain.
Saul Marquez:
So you’re doing brain stimulation…
Mehran Talebinejad:
Exactly
Saul Marquez:
And with that… rather than talking, you’re doing a physical stimulation.
Mehran Talebinejad:
Absolutely.
Saul Marquez:
Okay.
Mehran Talebinejad:
We are using energy op-sized energy to do is and this is not new. This has been around for many years. What they’re doing differently is we have invented new electromagnetic waves form that are evidenced-based on this study that we do, Chan and I had in the last 16 years. We have come up with a new form of electromagnetic wave for which have passed their longer lasting neural effect in the brain. Long story short, through the electroshock therapy, you apply current to the brain. Three years easier and it has some therapeutic application with electromagnetic rays form we can do the same job in a few millimeters of the brain without triggering seizure and convulsion without suspecting side effects. However, electromagnetic rays form that was used in 1980. And believe it or not, we’re still using them today not to call them back to have a slow and very short lasting effect on the brain. Chasing point, magnetic brain stimulation is not as effective as electroshock therapy. Today in 2019, electroshock therapy is still the gold Walmart for among rough treatment of depression and many other brain conditions. What we have is a new form of magnetic brain stimulation, which we are enjoying advantages of this type of therapy. This cycle ran a simulation that doesn’t have any new trial. It doesn’t trigger convulsion or seizure. Meanwhile, we can achieve very effective therapeutic result in patients. We installed our first unit in 2015 at University of Ottawa in Ontario Canada. And since then, we have completed the Phase 1 clinical with the initiative launching a tutorial in college where we show patients who’ve been to cancer who failed the medication, who failed psychotherapy while no other option other than electroshock therapy or surgery in order to do deep brain stimulation. Can come in the non-invasive treatment, which doesn’t require anesthetics, which doesn’t have any side effects, and they can get very, very, I would say, greater long, strongest treatment. And right now what we are doing is basically we are expanding nature clinical study to provide more evidence to FDA and have this treatment of the mainstream treatment within hospitals, especially within children hospitals.
Saul Marquez:
Well, super fascinating and definitely congratulations on the work. For the listeners wanting to learn more, where can they go, get more information or contact you?
Mehran Talebinejad:
Well, we are an emerging company, we’ve been around for more than seven years, but still we are considered an emerging company in many of the studies we have done are in publication. So I’ll be happy to tell you there will be publications in peer reviewed journal very soon summarizing our clinical exam. Meanwhile, the neuroqore.com is only one good place to get their latest examples of what we do.
Saul Marquez:
Beautiful.
Mehran Talebinejad:
And yes, those I would ask people to check out our website and also communicate with our team. Feel free to send an e-mail to info@neuroqore.com and we have many patients who come in and ask a specific question. Then we try to communicate with them as much as we can.
Saul Marquez:
Well, it’s been a certainly very interesting to hear your thoughts on this area of cognitive behavioral therapy through different methods. And so I love if you could just leave us with a closing thought and then the best place where the listeners could continue the discussion with you.
Mehran Talebinejad:
I think it’s very important in this day and age for people to communicate their brain forms with their loved ones, with their support system, with their doctor, the whoever it is they’re comfortable speaking to. And it seemed to me at a point where we have to shame… be shameless when it comes to our health, when it comes to brain health, don’t mind the social stigma and really communicate with people and seek help. And the good news is, if you identify your issue earlier, it’s always easier grab. So the last word here, I really recommend that teenagers, people who are aging between 12 to 19, who feel that… who might feel depressed. Who might have… be thinking about dark places to find the support system, to speak out, to seek therapy and not to be ashamed of it. And basically, it’s about people who see either people with this type of issues. Do we talk to them? Be a friend. In this day and age, with everything that is happening with cell phones and social media and all this craziness around us? We need to be more human. We need to be supporting each other. And it is a shame for North America to have double digit rising their suicidal rate, especially children who are our future. Well, we’re going to basically be for them for every way down the road in doing this, that makes them to please do it.
Saul Marquez:
It’s a great call out Mehran. Definitely a problem that needs resolving. Folks for further discussion and information, check out the website, go to outcomesrocket.health and in the search bar type in Mehran or type in neuroqore and you’ll see the entire transcript as well as links to connect with Mehran and the work that he and his team are up to. With that, I just want to say a big thank you to you Mehran for walking us through this very important topic and the work that you and your team are doing. Really appreciate it.
Mehran Talebinejad:
You may welcome Saul.
Thanks for listening to the Outcomes Rocket podcast. Be sure to visit us on the web at www.outcomesrocket.com for the show notes, resources, inspiration, and so much more.
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