BCIwiki (bciwiki.com) — Dong'e County People's Hospital in Liaocheng, eastern China's Shandong province, performed a brain-computer interface implant in September 2026, the country's first such procedure at a county-level hospital.
According to Liaocheng Daily, the procedure used an implanted BCI system approved by China's National Medical Products Administration. The implant sits outside the dura, the membrane covering the brain, without directly contacting brain tissue. The system records and decodes brain signals to help the patient control external assistive devices for actions such as grasping and picking up objects.
Clinical use of this technology had previously been concentrated in large top-tier tertiary hospitals at the provincial level and above. This procedure extends its use to a county-level hospital.
The hospital has combined neurology and neurosurgery into a neuroscience center, with joint ward rounds and clinical care. It had previously performed electrode implantation procedures for Parkinson's disease.
The report did not disclose the patient's medical condition, baseline function, postoperative assessments or follow-up results. Further reporting is needed to establish the patient's functional gains and long-term use of the system.