The Problem:
The World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Stroke Initiative states that strokes have substantial impact on social economics and healthcare system resources worldwide. Stroke is the second leading cause of disability, with 15 million new cases occurring each year.
Some stroke survivors find that the rehabilitation programmes they receive from physiotherapists can often be unengaging, difficult and painful. Stroke survivors complete on average only two minutes of physiotherapy a day, nowhere near the recommended 45. This issue significantly impacts the speed and quality of recovery. As patient numbers continue to rise, conventional physiotherapy and home physiotherapy will face challenges. A solution that improves healthcare processes and patient recovery is needed, which will place less burden on healthcare systems and reduce economic impact when strokes occur in working age groups.
The Solution:
eXRt Intelligent Healthcare provides a virtual reality physiotherapist software platform that allows stroke survivors to use fun physiotherapy-based games to increase engagement and adherence to their physiotherapy programme at home.
The company conducted decades of research to create AI that tailors the physiotherapist games to each patient’s movement skills, creating a balanced programme. The cloud-enabled web app allows physiotherapists to remotely monitor and manage all their patients’ progress. This also improves efficiency as they can treat more patients and reduce waiting lists, as well as getting patients home sooner.
Over the next 12 to 18 months, Dominic is excited to continue his personal development towards become a better entrepreneur and CEO, gaining more knowledge of the business landscape. A key milestone moving forward will to be optimise and refine the current product so that it is reliable and ready to be competitive in the commercial market. A parallel milestone is to work toward the product’s approval as a medical device, which is essential for entering the market.
Traction:
- 2020: finished a large feasibility study funded by Horizon 2020, after recruiting 113 stroke survivors for six months to use the product in their own home with minimal support
- 2020: CEO award on to the NxNW ICURe project for market validation
- 2021: received £300,000 from Innovate UK for business development and pre-commercial exercises that began in October 2021
Associated Programme
