Aclarion Expands Nociscan Use at Weill Cornell Medicine in New Trial on Disc Degeneration
Aclarion's second commercial agreement with Weill Cornell Medicine will deploy its Nociscan platform in a randomized controlled trial led by Dr. Roger Härtl, aiming to improve understanding and treatment of degenerative disc disease.
Aclarion, Inc. (Nasdaq: ACON, ACONW), a commercial-stage healthcare technology company, announced today a second commercial agreement with Weill Cornell Medicine to expand the use of its Nociscan platform in a groundbreaking clinical trial. The trial, titled “Bone Marrow Aspirate Concentrate Injection with MRI’s – a Prospective Randomized Controlled Trial,” will be led by renowned neurosurgeon Roger Härtl, MD, founder and director of the Weill Cornell Medicine Center for Comprehensive Spine Care and co-director of Och Spine at NewYork-Presbyterian.
The study aims to evaluate the long-term effects of lumbar microdiscectomy surgery with and without an intradiscal bone marrow aspirate concentrate (BMAC) injection on patient-reported outcomes, intervertebral disc health, and pain biomarkers over a two-year period. Researchers seek to learn more about the natural history of degenerative disc disease (DDD), its causes, and inform treatments. “Our scientific interest focuses on clinical and basic science research surrounding innovative and less invasive surgical and biological treatment strategies for degenerative diseases of the spine,” said Dr. Härtl. “This trial strives to enhance our understanding of disc degeneration in patients, and illuminate chemical aspects of disc degeneration not available with traditional imaging.”
Nociscan is the first evidence-supported SaaS platform to noninvasively help physicians distinguish between painful and nonpainful discs in the lumbar spine. It uses magnetic resonance spectroscopy data, proprietary signal processing, and augmented intelligence algorithms to quantify chemical biomarkers associated with disc pain. When used with other diagnostic tools, Nociscan provides critical insights into pain location and demonstrates a 97% surgical success rate when all Nociscan-identified pain positive discs are treated.
This is the second trial at Weill Cornell Medicine to incorporate Nociscan. Ryan Bond, Chief Strategy Officer of Aclarion, stated, “We are pleased to engage in this trial with Dr. Härtl and his team at Weill Cornell. Not only are Dr. Härtl and his colleagues renowned for their clinical excellence, their commitment to pioneering research is evident through this prospective randomized trial evaluating disc degeneration and the potential effects of bone marrow aspirate concentrate. Progressive trials such as this one are a clear example for how healthcare advances – investigating a major global health issue, like degenerative disc disease, while using innovative tools like Nociscan.”
Chronic low back pain affects approximately 266 million people worldwide, according to a study in Global Spine Journal (2018). Aclarion’s technology addresses this global health problem by providing objective data to guide treatment decisions. The company’s latest news and updates are available at its newsroom.
The implications of this agreement are significant. By integrating Nociscan into a rigorous randomized controlled trial, Aclarion is generating high-quality evidence that could support broader adoption of its platform. If the trial demonstrates that Nociscan improves outcomes by identifying painful discs and guiding BMAC injections, it could change clinical practice for DDD, reducing the need for more invasive surgeries and improving patient quality of life. For Aclarion, successful trial results may accelerate commercialization and strengthen its position in the spine diagnostics market.