New device helping stroke survivors in Connecticut. Now UConn is trying to expand the program

CT Insider – Monday, June 2, 2025
By Cris Villalonga-Vivoni

Strokes are the number one cause of lifelong disability for adults, so helping survivors regain some sense of mobility and normalcy often requires multiple medical interventions, therapies and innovative approaches to care being developed all the time.

Interventions, such as occupational and physical therapy, provide patients with some leeway to regain mobility, but many plateau in their progress after a few years.

Doctors at UConn Health and Hartford HealthCare are hoping that they can bring a new device showing promise in helping stroke survivors regain their mobility more effectively. The goal is to launch a pilot program that will get the approved device to 10 Connecticut veterans experiencing upper-body mobility issues.

Manufactured by privately owned Texas-based MicroTransponder Inc., the Vivistim System aims to help stroke survivors regain more mobility by stimulating the vagus nerve in the brain during their occupational therapy sessions, promoting the creation of new neural connections for improved mobility. The device was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2021 after decades of research, according to the manufacturers.

The UConn Health neurosurgeon leading the charge, Dr. Christopher Conner, was initially skeptical when he first heard about the device in 2023, but he was willing to try it out. Since then, Conner has performed the surgery on 13 people, all of whom are seeing a little over twice the average improvement in their mobility. These results have helped his patients return to many of their beloved hobbies and activities, such as cooking, golfing, and playing music.

“The medical apparatus writ large has struggled with ways to help these people, and a lot of the front line for that really has been our therapist,” said “So it’s incredibly gratifying to give that kind of thing back, some of the quality of life, is incredible and help out other providers who are really, working very hard with these these patients it’s fantastic.”

The idea of using electrical stimulation on the vagus nerve is not novel, Conner said. The vagus nerve branches through the lower part of the brain and is the longest cranial nerve in the body, serving as the primary highway that connects the brain to various functions, including heart rate and swallowing.

Doctors have relied on vagus nerve stimulation to treat conditions like depression and epilepsy and as part of neuromodulation therapies with varying degrees of success.

Conner said the nerve itself doesn’t control upper extremities like the arms and hands, but, for some reason, when stimulated, it releases chemicals that can change the set neural connections, also known as neuromodulators. This effectively allows the brain to reorganize itself and create new neural connections for improved motor function that bypasses the areas damaged by the stroke, especially when paired with therapy.

“It’s like steroids, it’s going to make the training itself more effective,” he said. Said Conner, who is also the director of functional and stereotactic neurosurgery at the University of Connecticut.

Implanting the device is a relatively easy and minimally invasive procedure, requiring only two incisions, Conner said. Two weeks post-procedure, patients begin their 90-minute therapy sessions, three times a week for six weeks, focusing on specific tasks with extensive repetition.

There, the therapist will activate the Vivistim device, which sends electrical signals to the brain during key moments in therapy to promote further neuroplasticity, leading to greater functional gains.

Over her 22 years, UConn Health occupational therapist Rhonda Hickey said she has explored various forms of electrical stimulation to help her patients’ muscles become more functional and relieve pain, but the Vivisim System device has been game-changing.

Working in the Musculoskeletal Institute, Hickey’s role in the process involves assessing and approving patients for surgery and then assisting them with their therapy two weeks later. She said she notices how relaxed her patients become once she starts the electrical stimulation despite the intensive treatment.

She has worked with five Vivistim patients so far, all of whom have seen significant improvement over the six weeks. One patient, for example, told Hickey that it felt as if his “arm was back” after many years of difficulty.

Patients continue their therapy at home after learning how to activate the device with a magnet, which provides continuous stimulation for their daily exercises or activities, like folding laundry or getting dressed.

“I want them to be able to get back to their lives and hope that we can help them do it,” Hickey said.

Despite the success, getting Vivistim into the hands of patients has proven difficult, especially when dealing with hesitant insurance companies and uncertain access to federal grants that would fund this type of research.

To curb this, Conner said they are asking for $2 million to establish and expand a Center of Excellence for Neuromodulation Treatment at UConn. The goal is to offer the Vivistim device to 10 veterans at no cost and conduct long-term research on the surgeries performed at UConn, which is currently the only practice in Connecticut offering the Vivistim surgery. At the same time, Hartford HealthCare would handle the necessary therapies.

He said that focusing the study on veterans, who are already at higher risk of stroke at younger ages, could help demonstrate the efficacy of the program and better “jump-start that process a little bit,” especially in Connecticut.

“We already have a very, very successful program…and we can offer that to the people of Connecticut,” he said.

The funding for the center was included in the proposed $55.7 billion two-year budget back in April, although a budget has not yet been set by state lawmakers with a deadline looming this week.

Connecticut’s center would be joining the growing cohort of medical providers offering Vivistim across more than 20 states. However, the Nutmeg state is the only one pursuing legislation tied to the stroke device to the manufacturer’s knowledge.

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