Millions of people around the world suffer from strokes each year, and millions more are recovering from strokes. It is a long way to recover the injured limbs and abilities, but it can be reduced with intensive rehabilitation efforts – as Neurofenix shows, it can be done at home, not during frequent trips to the hospital. Its Neuroball device and home therapy platform have secured $7 million in new funding to expand and deepen the platform.
The problem with existing stroke rehabilitation techniques is not that they are ineffective, but that they are mostly available in hospitals and limit how long they can be engaged.
“For many, many years rehabilitation, especially neurorehabilitation, has focused on large devices in facilities,” says CEO and co-founder (along with CTO Dimitrios Athanasiou) of NeuroPhoenix. “We’ve captured the essence of what needs to be done in neurorehabilitation: it needs to be deep, engaging, motivating, and something that keeps people engaged not just for weeks, but for months and years.”
There are some home recovery devices out there, often in the form of gloves or free motion trackers, both of which work to some extent but don’t contain.
Before we started producing the first products, we talked to hundreds of patients, hundreds of therapists, tested them. Everything Outside – I personally had to try a lot of things when a family member had a stroke,” Singla said. The first urgent need that was being completely neglected was upper limb rehabilitation: 80% of patients suffer from arm and hand disabilities after stroke.
The company’s solution is the Neuroball, which the user can easily hold and strap on and track every movement of the upper leg from shoulder to toe. It does nothing different from in-hospital settings, but allows patients to perform rehabilitative exercises and activities more frequently and in ways that reflect their unique needs and abilities.
Neuroball is resting on the side of a tablet interface in people’s homes.
It includes a motion and direction indicator for wrist, elbow and shoulder movements and individual sensors for each finger. The ball rests in the crease but can be picked up and moved freely.
“The key is neuroplasticity,” Singla said. “The data shows that the more repetitions a patient does, the greater the recovery. In a typical session with a therapist, a patient does 30 to 40 exercises, and in our clinical trials, we’ve shown patients do more than 600 a day.”
Ease of use, gamification, and minor algorithm tweaks the company says will result in increased exercise—and, according to their research, better outcomes, including improved range of motion and pain relief.
Image Credits: Neurophoenix
It’s easier to wear than protective gloves, doesn’t take up much space, runs the software on a small, specialized tablet, and has a handful of different games for every activity the patient wants to do. These are simple but exciting things, like the endless racing where you press to jump, or the Space Invaders game where you turn your wrist to move your ship. It might not be Fortnite, but it’s better than seeing a number add up. There are also leaderboards if the user wants to compare their progress with a patient.
The promise of improved home rehabilitation is certainly appealing to many people who find it difficult to go to the hospital or physical therapy office three or four times a week. Such a schedule can be challenging for anyone, even someone with mobility, speech or upper body limitations.
By doing the exercises at home and on their own time, the software adjusts to the patient’s rhythm and preferences (for example, being more flexible in the morning or evening), naturally allowing for more rehabilitation without additional clinical input. (“In fact, last week, one patient reached 300 days in a row on the platform,” Singla said.)
The main hurdle is affordability: the device is too new to be covered by insurance, although it is eligible for HSA and FSA expenses. So far, the Buenos Aires-based company has conducted a few trials showing Neurobol’s effectiveness, but not enough to be covered as a prescription medical device. But now that they have a new round of $7 million in the bank, that’s next on the agenda.
“The reason we raised this Series A was with clear goals in mind,” Singla said, primarily establishing a commercial and clinical presence in the US and then expanding into adjacent therapeutic areas.
“Our goal is to be the leader in at-home neurorehabilitation for trauma, not just stroke,” he continued. “We have 400 ideas in terms of improvements we can make: expansion, cognitive training, speech and language… there are many other therapies we can look at.
The $7 million A round was led by AlbionVC, with participation from HTH, InHealth Ventures and existing investors. The device is not yet publicly available, but curious clinicians and prospective patients are encouraged to reach out for possible collaborations.
