Volume 15 Number 4

• Foreword: Is a Global Governance Framework Necessary for Neurotechnology?

  by Clare Stark

  Neurotechnology is often recognized as “the field of devices and procedures used to access, monitor, investigate, assess, manipulate, and/or emulate the structure and function of the neural systems of animals or human beings.” Neurotechnology can help people with paralysis to move and feel, deaf people to hear, and blind people to partially see. Neurotechnology also has the potential to treat many diseases of the nervous system, neurological diseases, and mental illnesses, which represent a high cost in terms of health care expenditures. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), mental health illnesses drive economic costs of more than 4% of gross domestic product (GDP).

  15 Drexel L. Rev. 757

• The Data We Leave Behind: Limits of Legal Protections for Neurotechnology and Genomic Data

  by Robert I. Field
  It is almost impossible to go through a day without leaving digital traces through activities ranging from web searches to social media postings to use of smart phone apps. These traces permit providers of web-based services to amass large amounts of personal information that can be used to discern a user’s interests, attitudes, preferences, behaviors, and other characteristics. In recent years, the companies that provide these services have begun to collect new kinds of especially sensitive biometric information, first reflecting genetic makeup and more recently reflecting neurotechnology measures of brain activity.
  15 Drexel L. Rev. 769

• Private Equity in Health Care: Barbarians at the Gate?

  by Robert I. Field, Barry Furrow, David R. Hoffman, Kevin Lownds, and Hilary Pearsall

  Private equity investment in health care has increased dramatically over the past several years, reaching 1,171 transactions worth a total of $105.3 billion in 2020. However, this growing investment strategy comes with its disadvantages. Private equity acquisitions follow a different business model than traditional for-profit ownership in health care. As a result, investors claim that they inject needed funds into financially struggling facilities, while critics see a grab for shortterm profits that often strips facilities of resources, compromises quality care delivery and leaves many of them bankrupt.

  15 Drexel L. Rev. 821

• Human Rights Systems of Protection From Neurotechnologies that Alter Brain Activity

  by Marta Sosa Navarro and Salvador Dura-Bernal
  The relationship between technology and the law is traditionally known to be complex—especially when it comes to neurotechnology. Neurotechnology is the science and technology that can read and modify the brain, which is the organ responsible for our thoughts, perceptions, agency, and identity. Therefore, it is unquestionable that the regulator faces an unprecedented challenge to mitigate negative impacts of neurotechnology. The rapid development of neurotechnology and the readiness of the market to implement the techniques developed in the medical arena into direct-to-consumer devices calls for a global reflection on the risks that the non-medical use of neurotechnology may pose for human rights.
  15 Drexel L. Rev. 893