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April 8, 2025

Link to my slides discussing the use of prediction modeling with a specific focus on the field of benign urology. Note the second half of my talk is not available online but I’m happy to discuss any aspects of it via email/zoom.

I also have a new post that will hopefully be coming soon about using MATLAB to load Spike2 files. If that is something that you may benefit from using send an email to me and I can point you to the code base.

About Me

Photo of Jim

My name is James (Jim) Hokanson. I am an assistant professor in the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Medical College of Wisconsin and Marquette University. My background is in neural engineering (see below). I’m interested in developing new therapies to treat urological dysfunction, particularly urgency urinary incontinence. I’m also interested in developing new diagnostic tests to improve the therapy selection process, as well as to inform new therapy development. My skillset includes electrical stimulation, physiological testing, signal processing, software development and machine learning. My work includes a mixture of both clinical and pre-clinical studies. Having been in this field for over 10 years I’ve become increasingly passionate about women’s pelvic health. There is so much need in this field, and not enough research effort, advocacy, or funding.

Background

My previous job was as a postdoc/research scientist in biomedical engineering at Duke University working with Drs. Warren Grill (PhD) and Cindy Amundsen (MD) on treatments for urological dysfunction. You can find out more about that research on my research page.

As an undergraduate at Washington University in St. Louis I worked in Dr. Dan Moran’s lab where I conducted electrocorticography (ECoG) research. The ultimate goal of that work is to allow individuals with paralysis or neuromuscular disorders to control devices by extracting motor intent signals directly from the brain (using ECoG recordings).

I did my graduate work at the University of Pittsburgh with Dr. Doug Weber. My focus was on developing an animal model to study artificial somatosensory feedback via electrical stimulation of dorsal root ganglia. The ultimate goal of that work is to develop a prosthetic that not only allows the user to move/control the prosthetic, but that also provides somatosensory feedback.

You can find me elsewhere on the internet at: