Here is the fourth promising team that has been selected for the famous bootcamp which will take place from March 24th to 26th. They will come to defend their project Articulate Labs. This project consists of wearable devices that amplify muscle re-strengthening and re-education. The purpose is accelerating physical rehabilitation and restoring mobility through movement-synchronous electrical muscle stimulation. Find below their gripping interview.
Introduce yourselves (Who are you? Where do you come from? How many members does your team have?)
Articulate Labs builds wearable medical devices that amplify muscle growth throughout everyday activity to help patients conquer functional limitations and to restore physical capability. Our team currently has three members, two in Texas and one in Michigan.
What are the main motivations that led you to apply for the Arkathon Program?
The thing that intrigued us about the Arkathon program was the stated desire on the part of the program and its partners to iterate development. Many who want to support medical intervention development have little actual interest in iterating because it requires time, effort, and the possibility of being wrong. We are excited about the possibility of having expert advisors be willing to get their hands dirty and share in this process with us. Additionally, being able to work and network with an international community of people with similar focuses and goals is very interesting and we are sure we will walk away with brand new ways to view the world as a result.
What is your project about?
Our project centers on accelerating the process of re-strengthening and re-training atrophied muscle through movement-synchronous neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES). NMES has been used to good effect in sports medicine and physical therapy, but it has been restricted to pre-programmed sequences that are only usable when a patient remains stationary. Our thought is that aligning stimulation with muscle usage in everyday activity will make the treatment more effective in strengthening and re-educating muscle while also making the treatment more convenient, comfortable, and trackable. We believe we have accomplished just that with a form of NMES that integrates AI, motion-tracking hardware, and our own proprietary joint modeling system. This system will learn from and adapt to the user as they walk.
What needs does it respond to? How is it innovative?
On the surface, this technology addresses issues with atrophy and inhibition for people dealing with chronic knee conditions or who are recovering from knee surgery. In the US, this includes 14 million and a $10B knee treatment TAM that is steadily increasing as the population grows older and heavier. Fundamentally, though, this technology responds to challenges with physiotherapy access. 70% of the US population who is prescribed physiotherapy does not make it to all of their sessions or is not compliant with their home-based regimens. This is not necessarily because of lack of desire; lack of time, distance to physiotherapy, challenges with cost or reimbursement, and confusion over treatment can all serve to limit access. With this technology, when the patient cannot come to physiotherapy, some of the physiotherapy can come to them.
What do you think makes your approach to the bootcamp different?
The best way we have made any difference any place we have been has first been to shut up and listen. This means listening to researchers, listening to business leaders who have blazed the path we are leading, listening to physiotherapists and orthopedic surgeons about their workflow and unmet needs, and listening to patients with feedback about our work. When we take in the information available about the problems that exist, it becomes far easier to create solutions that will wind up being worthwhile.
A final word?
We are looking forward to meeting everyone soon!
For more information on this innovative project, you can consult their website: articulatelabs.tech
Discover the interview of the last team participating to the bootcamp: U-Care Medical, the solution against kidney injuries
