Doctors and surgeons are used to recommending back braces for patients who have back pain or have had surgery, but as it happens, many of them could probably benefit from some back support, too. Strains, sprains and tears are the most common workplace injuries in healthcare, so startup Exo Dynamics LLC is starting there with its high-tech spinal orthoses device.
Designed to provide lower back support, the brace has two padded, sensor-embedded straps worn horizontally around the hips and chest, and two vertical straps that go over the shoulders. Between the horizontal straps are actuators connected to the sensors that allow the device to move along with the person wearing it, providing optimal support through a variety of poses.
It’s similar to the idea behind mountain backpacks that strap around the hips, said co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Jorge Sanz-Guerrero Cosulich, which are meant to offload the back by transferring weight directly to the hips. “By doing that, we are reducing the amount of effort that the muscles in the lower back need to put in, and that allows muscles to withstand longer periods of time crouched over.”
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Exo Dynamics grew out of the PhD project of Daniel Johnson, now the company’s chief technology officer. Fellow PhD candidate Sanz-Guerrero, who was in the same medical device research group at University of Michigan, proposed the idea of starting a company to bring the technology to market.
A year and a half later, Johnson, Sanz-Guerrero and a team of six others are gearing up to launch it to medical professionals this summer. Although the eventual goal is to have it used in patients for prevention and treatment of back pain, the team is starting in a narrower market where Johnson noticed that back strain was really a problem, and where it can be used as an ergonomic aid without 510(k).
The team plans for its first customers to be interventionalists – medical professionals that perform minimally invasive procedures, like cardiologists, radiologists and some surgeons.
“These operations are short, but some do four procedures a day, so they’re stooping over patients for eight hours a day,” Sanz-Guerrero said. “Furthermore, these guys need to wear X-ray shielding vests, which can add 12 pounds to them.”
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Once it starts generating some revenue, the company will expand its target market to include dentists, Sanz-Guerrero said. But their movement and positioning is more complex, so the product needs further development.
Meanwhile, the company hopes to simultaneously be making its way through clinical trials so that it can eventually take the device to patients recovering from spine surgeries. The brace has fewer points of contact than a traditional back brace and is readjustable, so it may be more comfortable to wear and allow for more mobility. And, the sensor and electromechanical components open the door for the incorporation of at-home monitoring features. The company is working on seeking IRB approval to conduct clinical trials.
To make that happen, and to launch the product to interventionalists this summer, Sanz-Guerrero said the company is looking to raise $300,000 this year. Being young founders has had its benefits; the startup has gotten most of its $120,000 in funding thus far through the university, competitions like the Michigan Business Challenge, and the National Science Foundation’s I-Corps program.
[Photo courtesy Exo Dynamics LLC]
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