Virtual-Reality Goggles for Stroke Victims
MindMaze can help patients retain their brain and regain motor functions
Form and function: MindMaze says its virtual-reality goggles, combined with exercise software and other games, can help stroke patients retrain their brain and regain motor function faster than with traditional physical therapy.
Training: The exercises fool the patient’s brain into activating neurons and areas that can take over functions of the damaged ones. Tadi says that in a 20-person clinical trial, patients using the equipment two and a half hours a day for three weeks improved their motor function by as much as 35 percent.
Next Steps: Tadi says MindMaze will submit its system for Food and Drug Administration approval this summer and move to San Francisco by yearend. The startup’s 16 full-time employees will release a home version of its equipment later this year, he says. Elliot Roth, chair of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Northwestern University, says VR is a logical next step for stroke therapy and can help patients move in a more natural fashion than typical basic exercises.
See the full story here: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-04/mindmaze-s-virtual-reality-goggles-for-stroke-victims