IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Flint Rehabilitation Devices today announced that it has been awarded a $1.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to conduct randomized controlled trials of MusicGlove, its groundbreaking hand rehabilitation device, on people with spinal cord injury (#spinalcordinjury) and people who have recently experienced a stroke (#stroke). The funding received by Flint is part of a two-year grant, which saw the company receive an initial $500K in 2014 to complete the commercialization of MusicGlove, and the final $1 million secured today for the clinical trials.
The spinal cord injury study will include 20 participants and will take place at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), while the stroke study takes place at both the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and at UCI with 20 participants at each location. Both studies are being headed by Principal Investigator Steven Cramer, M.D., a renowned neurologist specializing in neural repair at the UC Irvine Medical Center.
MusicGlove has already undergone both clinic- and home-based controlled trials with individuals in the chronic phase of stroke (defined as greater than six months since their stroke). Both studies showed that exercise with MusicGlove leads to significantly greater improvements in hand use compared to conventional clinic- or home-based therapy. These quantitative gains translate to reported functional gains such as: regaining the ability to open doorknobs, type on a keyboard, wash dishes, use silverware, bathe and wash, and use the restroom independently after exercising with the device. This is likely because the use of music and gaming in MusicGlove therapy creates a fun experience that motivates people to practice moving their hands thousands of times in a row, a key requirement for neural rehabilitation. Similar results are expected in the upcoming studies, which would pave the way for MusicGlove therapy to empower even more individuals to regain their independence after an injury.
“This generous grant from the National Institutes of Health is a further validation of the potential for MusicGlove to impact the lives of the millions of people who have been affected by spinal cord injuries and stroke,” said Dr. Nizan Friedman, CEO of Flint Rehabilitation Devices. “The upcoming study will help provide an objective measure of the benefits that MusicGlove can provide to these patient populations.”
MusicGlove works by using a unique, easy-to-don sensorized glove to track a user’s hand movements. This allows the user to play a therapeutic music-based game on an included touch screen console by completing specific movements timed to the rhythm of upbeat songs (similar to the popular videogame Guitar Hero). Practicing these movements, such as the ‘pincer grasp’ and ‘key pinch grip,’ is vital to regaining the ability to use the hand after neural damage. MusicGlove motivates a high number of intensive and functional movements and exercise with the device has been proven1 to lead to significantly greater improvements in hand function than conventional therapy.
To get more information about the clinical trials, interested parties can email info@flintrehabilitation.com.
MusicGlove is now available for purchase at www.musicglove.com/shop/ in both a Home Version from $1,099.00 (or $99.95/month for twelve months) and a Clinic Version from $4,199.00.
A video showing how MusicGlove works can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZYyEP4zAyg.
About Flint Rehabilitation Devices, LLC
Founded in 2011, Flint Rehabilitation Devices, LLC is located in Irvine, CA. Its mission is to develop effective, engaging rehabilitation devices that provide the spark people need to break through plateaus in their recovery and reach their maximum potential. Its flagship product, MusicGlove, was developed by a team of world renowned rehabilitation researchers and physicians at the University of California in Irvine (UCI) with support from the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Disability and Rehabilitation Research. MusicGlove is now being used in both individual patient homes and top clinical rehabilitation programs throughout the country. For more information, please visit www.musicglove.com.
1 Friedman, N., Chan, V., Reinkensmeyer, A. N., Beroukhim, A., Zambrano, G. J., Bachman, M., & Reinkensmeyer, D. J. (2014). Retraining and assessing hand movement after stroke using the MusicGlove: comparison with conventional hand therapy and isometric grip training. Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation, 11(1), 76.
