MediTouch Ltd. has been established to develop, manufacture and sell the HandTutor, a proprietary fully computerized system for the rehabilitation of hand function. The HandTutor rehabilitation system draws on new concepts, called neuroplasticity, that have shown that the adult brain has the ability to rewire and repair itself.

The Problem

Most patients with brain injury have impairments of the affected arm. As a consequence, functional use of the arm is limited, thereby affecting the activities of daily living (ADL). These patients are often discharged from therapy with some shoulder and elbow movement, but very limited hand function. They are told that they have reached a plateau, or the gains are not significant enough to justify continued therapy. MediTouch believes that these post brain injury patients have not plateaued, but the current rehabilitation treatment has. Recent studies have showed that intensive and repetitive training is necessary to modify neural organization and recover functional motor skills. As with learning a new skill, the important consideration in hand function rehabilitation is that the therapeutic task is carefully directed, well focused and repeated often. However, the current health care system provides hand function rehabilitation (e.g., in post-stroke patients) primarily in the outpatient setting. With the high cost of medical care in most industrialized countries today, many patients lack the monetary means to continue hands-on therapy with a professional therapist for long periods of time. As a result, the patients with hand impairment following some form of a brain injury are forced to go home without getting the therapy necessary for continued recovery.

Stroke is by far the leading cause for the loss of motor skills. The American Stroke Association statistics show that there are about 600,000 people survive stroke each year. More than 50% of stroke survivors are left with chronic motor deficits and require some assistance in ADL. MediTouch views post-stroke patients as its first target market to enter with the HandTutor hand rehabilitation system. MediTouch plans to get focused on affluent countries in North America and the EU as the most promising geographical markets to enter, the U.S. making up the most attractive single target market. MediTouch conservatively projects that at least 35% of the stroke survivors (~100,000 people) will make up most appropriate prospects to buy the HandTutor in the U.S.. This amounts to a global annual market of about 200,000 prospective HandTutor users, or around $200 million in value terms. Among the other prospective target markets for MediTouch to enter are patients suffering from orthopedic hand fractures, Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI), Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD), and children with learning motor skills disabilities (dyspraxia). 
The total size of the other markets for the HandTuitor is conservatively estimated at about 550,000 prospective customers per annum, or $550 million in value terms.

Technology (product) Description

The HandTutor is an exercise therapy device that actively involves the patient in the rehabilitation process. It provides a rich biofeedback environment permitting the patient to interact with a wide variety of computer graphic patterns that represent various hand and finger movements. The HandTutor is comprised of two primary components: a specially designed data glove, and proprietary software featuring a database of individually tailored hand training exercises. The HandTutor records the patient's efforts, making it easier for doctors and therapists to assess the patient's progress.

Competition

The product and treatment concept suggested by MediTouch and embodied in the HandTutor allows realizing the following main advantages:

• The HandTutor hand rehabilitation system encourages the patient to engage in goal-directed therapy, and thus, it is an effective EXPERT SYSTEM that learns from current and historic treatment data, and interactively fine-tunes the session goals based on the patient’s progress. 
• The patient will be able to monitor and record progress in hand function rehabilitations from the convenience of his or her own home, without real-time supervision from a therapist.
• The HandTutor therapy system is very easy-to-use; its set-up time is less than a minute.
• The HandTutor will be affordable for mass home use. Its target end-user price will be in the region of $1,000.

The Team

Mr. Giora Ein-Zvi - CEO, electronic engineer, expertise in digital hardware design.
Mr. Ziv Kuniz - CTO, electronic engineer, expertise in the area of DSP.
Dr. Motti Haridim, CSO, supervisor physiotherapist, B.P.T from “T.A university”.
Ph.D. Avraham Feazadeh, CCO, senior lecturer in Holon academic institute of technology Dept. of communication engineering.

Requirements

Strategic partnership.

Contact

Giora Ein-Zvi
Email: giora@meditouch.co.il