Neuronetics Brightens Outlook For Neuro Devices

A medical device, on occasion, can spawn a new specialty. A clever engineer designs a device or implant small enough to be deployed by those skilled with a guidewire and catheter, enabling an interventionalist to reach an organ previously accessible only through surgery. Over the past decades, these advances have helped minimize the physical impact of treating a blocked artery, fractured vertebrae or a dangerous spot of cancer. Neuronetics Inc. is an unlikely contributor to this movement. The nine-year-old neurostimulation company created a device capable of safely reaching one of the most remote areas of the body – the brain. And, in doing so, the company created a new specialty of sorts, one that carries a somewhat contradictory tag – the interventional psychiatrist.

Unlike other interventional approaches, Neuronetics’ NeuroStar TMS Therapy System doesn’t require an entry incision to access its targeted organ. Instead,...