Tokyo (SCCIJ) – A new device from Switzerland helps stroke victims to speed up the recovery of their hand motoric functions. MindMaze, a Vaud-based worldwide leader in AI-powered digital neurotherapeutics currently and with a value of more than 1 billion dollars one of Switzerland’s unicorns, released its latest product in the United States and Europe.
“Izar” is a unique smart peripheral device to aid patients with hand motor dysfunction (© Mindmaze).
Self-training program
Izar is a hyper-sensitive controller intended for the assessment and training of hand dexterity and strength. It presents an opportunity for clinics to address the unmet or underserved need for hand recovery. It achieves this by enabling the provision of new in-clinic or remotely supervised self-training programs that can enhance the quality and quantity of training received by patients in their homes.
This highly sensitive controller has been designed from the ground up to assess and train dexterity and strength by capturing the precise grasp forces and wrist movements required for everyday activities. The device can detect even the slightest finger and hand forces at sub-newton levels, making it suitable for treating even the most severely impaired patients.
User-friendly rehabilitation tool
The Izar controller is a portable and user-friendly device that comes with engaging gaming content, enabling patients to undertake self-training exercises in their homes, at the bedside or in clinics. The device offers considerable training improvements and is part of a broader approach to treating and managing neurological conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, and traumatic brain injury, among other conditions.
“It can serve as a controller during reach-to-grasp movements, as a trainer of grip force gradation and as an assessor of dexterity”, MindMaze chief medical director and professor John Krakauer said. “The device is also highly portable, so it can be used across the continuum of care, which is important as the upper limb, and the hand in particular gets relatively neglected in neurorehabilitation.”
Pioneering clinical research
Leading global centers such as Shirley Ryan Ability Lab in the US, University College London in the United Kingdom, and The University of Auckland in New Zealand are already actively using Izar in pioneering clinical research. Izar was subjected to rigorous pre-launch testing across nine sites and delivered over 250 hours of active supervised and self-training therapy time in 250 patients, receiving unanimously positive feedback.
Izar is available today in the US and European countries, including France, Switzerland, and Germany with content that enables training in dexterous grasp, pinch, and grip. Future software content will unlock training content for the wrist, bilateral movements, and combination movements of the upper limb and hand, as well as dexterity assessments for the hand and wrist.
Founded in 2012 as a spin-off of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) and having received the support of Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio, MindMaze became the first Swiss unicorn with offices in Lausanne, Baltimore, London, Paris, and Mumbai. The biotech currently employs 140 people, 80 of them in its Lausanne offices.
Text: Text: © GGBA (Editing by SCCIJ)
