Our surgeons agree that preserving patient quality of life is the final frontier for high-risk surgeries. Safer surgeries encourage patients to choose the right treatment sooner, which further improves patient outcomes. We are a team of world-leading clinicians, scientists, and engineers working to make IONM available to all surgeries.
For nearly 40 years, NeuroVRD CEO and founder Jeffrey Owen, Ph.D., has been at the forefront of the scientific, clinical, and technological development of Intraoperative Neuromonitoring. He started and led the IONM programs at the University of Washington, St. Louis and Johns Hopkins University, before founding (and later exiting) Sentient Medical Systems, which was the largest IONM provider of the time, and established the Standard of Care.
However, it was clear to Dr. Owen and his collaborators that the traditional IONM paradigm would never be able to meet surgeon demand. In 2019, Dr. Owen started NeuroVascular Research & Design with the goal of developing an automated IONM platform to bring reliable, accurate, and affordable monitoring to all surgeries, to help surgeons preserve all patients’ quality of life.
Jeffrey Owen received his Ph.D. in Neuroscience from The University of Arizona, emphasizing auditory neurophysiology. Dr. Owen developed and led the IOM programs for Neurosurgery and Orthopedic Surgery at the University of Washington, St. Louis, and Johns Hopkins University, before founding and exiting Sentient Medical Systems, providing IONM to over 14,000 patients a year.
Nicholas Chung is an experienced leader in data science, business, and software development. He joined NeuroVRD in 2020 and leads NeuroVRD’s regulatory strategy, business development, and day-to-day operations. Previously, he led prototype development, enterprise initiatives, and international growth at The Trade Desk. He has degrees from Brown and Columbia Universities.
Obed is an accomplished engineering leader with deep technical expertise. As founding engineer and CTO at NeuroVRD, he built the AI-IOM platform from the ground up. Previously, he led data and software engineering teams at Vimeo and Enso Financial. Obed holds an engineering degree from Columbia University and has a proven track record of developing high-performance data pipelines and machine learning models.
K Balachandran (Bala) is a passionate leader with extensive experience in medical devices and life sciences and a proven track record in operational excellence and scaling high-impact innovations. He has held C-level roles since 2007, excelling in both large organizations and startups. His leadership style is rooted in integrity, teamwork, and value-driven decision-making. Currently, he mentors young CEOs and advises several pre-funded startups. Between 2021 and 2022, he served as an advisor to Rhythmlink, helping the company expand into international markets and providing strategic guidance to the CEO.
H. Shields Day, Jr., is a finance professional who has spent his career as a CFO, advisor, investor, and board member for small-to-mid-sized (SMB) companies. Shields started his career in New York City as an investment banker for JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, providing research and advisory services for clients in their leveraged finance and equities divisions. He then spent ten years at an activist hedge fund that took large stakes in troubled companies and played an active role working with management teams to improve business performance. He has worked on hundreds of financial transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, debt and equity capital raises, restructurings, and asset sales. Mr. Day has an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business and received his CFA degree in 1999. He is a member of Launchpad Venture Group in Boston and serves as a mentor, judge and ambassador for Mass Challenge and the Massachusetts Innovation Network.
Executive with 30 years of experience in global equity capital markets, investment banking, equity market research, investor relations and strategic advisory to public/private funds; Most recently as Managing Director with Raymond James, and previously with Advest. Mr. Schaffer is experienced in P&L accountability, customer retention, collaborative product development, business planning and multi-channel distribution programs across diverse global markets resulting in increased bottom-line and market share growth. Mr. Schaffer has held executive positions at Raymond James Global Equity Markets, Kaufman, Advest and BD/M Collective.
Dr. Cohen obtained his Ph.D. from Marquette University in 1975. His research has focused on the analysis of electrical activity of the brain and nervous system using computers. He was a board member, and twice president of the American Society of Neurophysiological Monitoring and is an IEEE EMBS Distinguished Lecturer, teaching medical and bioengineering ethics. Dr. Cohen has been on the faculty of Emory University Medical School, the Medical College of Wisconsin and MSOE University, has published over 100 papers and book chapters, and received an honorary Doctor of Engineering from MSOE University where he is currently a Regent.
Quynh Nguyen, Ph.D. completed her graduate training in Cognitive Neuroscience and Statistics at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Her research interests include mathematical modeling of behavior, computational neuroscience, and multivariate analyses of neurophysiological data. As the ML Scientist at NeuroVRD, Quynh leads the design of a novel AI-IONM platform and is responsible for conducting clinical studies to validate its efficacy. Prior to NeuroVRD, Quynh worked at Stanford University School of Medicine and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where she developed ML solutions to clinical challenges.
