Top 10 Cognitive Fitness Events of 2008 to be Unveiled at SharpBrains’ Webinar

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Alvaro Fernandez, CEO of SharpBrains and member of the World Economic Forum’s Council on the Challenges of Gerontology, will lead a webinar discussing the Top 10 Cognitive Fitness Events of 2008 on Thursday, December 11, from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. Pacific Time. The webinar will be repeated on Thursday December 18, at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time.

“The State of the Brain Fitness Software Market 2008.”

This webinar is free for SharpBrains’ Premium Research Circle members and reporters. It costs $350 for other interested participants.

Description: The market for software applications that can help assess and enhance cognitive functions (Cognitive Fitness) is rapidly growing, as outlined in SharpBrains’ report entitled, “The State of the Brain Fitness Software Market 2008.” Published in March of this year, the report estimates that Brain Fitness market revenues grew from $100 million in 2005 to $225 million in 2007, in the U.S. alone. Important developments during 2008 underscore the solid fundamentals for the continued growth of this category: public policy initiatives, wide scale cognitive assessments, multiple venture capital investments, major initiatives by insurance companies, and new published research. SharpBrains forecasts the market to grow above $2 billion by 2015.

The Top 10 Events that will be discussed include:

1) February: Dakim secures a $10.6 million investment from Galen Partners. Jack LaLanne becomes spokesperson.

2) April: The Government of Ontario, Canada, invests $10 million in Baycrest to develop and commercialize cognitive fitness technologies.

3) April: University of Michigan researchers reveal in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences how computerized working memory training can generalize and improve fluid intelligence in healthy adults.

4) May: Humana unveils Games for Health initiatives, not renewing its agreement with Posit Science.

5) June: The US Army launches a new policy requiring cognitive screenings of all soldiers before deployment (in order to better diagnose potential brain-based disorders such as PTSD and TBI upon return).

6) June: Lumos Labs secures $3 million investment from FirstMark Capital and Norwest Venture Partners.

7) July: health insurer OptumHealth announces a 3-year, $18 million agreement with Brain Resource to offer web-based cognitive assessments to inform clinical diagnostics and treatments.

8) August: CogniFit secures $5 million from Milk Capital.

9) September: The Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 is signed into law.

10) October: Allstate launches a large-scale research project to measure the impact of Posit Science InSight on driver safety for adults aged 50-75.

Please check http://www.sharpbrains.com/ to learn more and register.

About SharpBrains and Premium Research Circle members:

SharpBrains is the leading market research and advisory services firm covering the growing cognitive fitness market. The firm released its flagship The State of the Brain Fitness Software Market 2008 earlier this year. SharpBrains was co-founded by executive Alvaro Fernandez and neuroscientist Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg. SharpBrains.com, the firm's educational blog and website, is a member of Scientific American Partner Network. More at http://www.sharpbrains.com/.

SharpBrains’ Premium Research Circle members have enterprise-wide access to SharpBrains’ market intelligence, including The State of the Brain Fitness Software Market 2008, the Special Brief Brain Fitness Centers in Seniors Housing - A Field in the Making, prepared for the American Seniors Housing Association and a variety of other informational services.

About Alvaro Fernandez:

Alvaro Fernandez is SharpBrains' co-founder and Chief Executive Officer. He is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Challenges of Gerontology. Alvaro started his career at McKinsey & Company and led the launch and turnaround of several publishing and education companies in the U.S. and Europe. He has an MBA and MA in Education from Stanford University, and enjoys teaching The Science and Practice of Brain Fitness at UC-Berkeley’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.