Clinical trials

The purpose of this research study is to learn how a wearable nerve stimulation device, the Spark Biomedical's Sparrow Ascent System™, impacts the development of spatial disorientation and/or motion sickness in a healthy population. Spatial disorientation is when there is a "mismatch" between where a person is, and where the sense organs in their body tell them where they are. These sense organs include the inner ear (the vestibular system), the eyes (the visual system), the sense of where one's legs, back, and neck are (proprioceptive system), and one's higher thinking (cognitive centers). If spatial disorientation is severe or occurs in motion-naïve individuals, spatial disorientation can lead to motion sickness. The Sparrow Ascent System™ is a wearable, battery-operated transcutaneous auricular (ear) neurostimulation (tAN) device. This means that it uses electrical pulses to stimulate branches of nerves on and/or around the ear, specifically the "vagus" and "trigeminal" nerves. These nerves are also responsible for your sensation of nausea and your heart rate (vagus nerve), as well as headaches (trigeminal nerve). The Sparrow System utilizes a flexible earpiece with embedded hydrogel electrodes that stick to the skin, the earpiece is disposable after use. This device is already Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved for use in humans and is safely used for control of symptoms in a variety of other medical conditions, such as opioid withdrawal and acute stress reaction. In this study, we will determine if the Sparrow Ascent System™ impacts the development of spatial disorientation or motion sickness.

This is a prospective randomized contralateral double-masked study. Each patient will be randomized as to which eye undergoes wave-front optimized (WFO) vs. wave-front guided (WFG) during Photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) or Laser-assisted in situ Keratomileusis (LASIK) surgery to determine which ablation profile provides the best visual outcome.

This randomized, single-masked, crossover, non-inferiority trial aims to evaluate the safety and efficacy of Nanodropper-mediated microdrops of ocular hypotensive topical treatments (experimental intervention) compared to standard drops of the same medication(s) (active comparator) in Wilford Hall Ambulatory Surgical Center (WHASC) primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) and ocular hypertension (OHTN) patients.