Shanxi Medical University's First Hospital inaugurated Shanxi's first Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) Clinical Research Center on Oct 24. This milestone represents a significant advancement in the clinical application of BCI technology in the province, offering new rehabilitation hopes for patients with paralysis and consciousness disorders.

As a core initiative of the "Healthy Shanxi" project, the center leverages the strengths of three national clinical specialties within the hospital. It has formed a multidisciplinary team led by the neurosurgery department, collaborating with the neurology, psychiatry, and rehabilitation medicine departments.

Initially, the center will focus on two major research areas. For motor function disorders caused by stroke and spinal cord injuries, the center plans to use invasive BCI technology to reconstruct neural pathways, aiming to reduce rehabilitation time. Additionally, by integrating BCI with neuromodulation techniques, the center seeks to develop new awakening strategies for patients in vegetative states.

This innovative platform is the result of over two years of collaboration between Shanxi Medical University and Tsinghua University's School of Medicine. Since their partnership began in March 2023, the two institutions have established the Qingshan Collaborative Innovation Center for Frontier Medicine. Together, they have published more than 80 high-level research papers, secured six joint research projects, and obtained two invention patents in biomedical and intelligent medical engineering fields.

The establishment of this research center not only allows Shanxi patients to access advanced treatments locally but also injects fresh momentum into the national BCI industry ecosystem.