Digital health startup Reflexion Health wants to make prescribed physical therapy more engaging and easier for patients recovering from surgery with reduced mobility. It secured $7.5 million in Series A funding from West Health Institute’s fund to support the advancement of the Microsoft Kinect-based platform called Vera, according to a company statement.
Reflexion is one of West Health’s incubator companies.
The interactive physical therapy tool Reflexion Health’s Rehabilitation Tracker has exercises, instructional videos and patient-education material to be prescribed by physicians and personalized to the needs of each patient. It coaches patients as they do their physical therapy exercises and sends real-time data back to their clinicians. It offers a way for physicians and physical therapists to track patients’ adherence and performance.
The investment in the San Diego-based company, is designed to help the company ramp up its engineering, product development and customer support teams. It will also help finance additional research studies.
A research study with the Center for Connected Health and Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Partners HealthCare is evaluating clinical efficacy for the platform as a home exercise program for patients recovering from hip and knee injuries.
In an interview with MedCity News, West Health CEO Nicholas Valeriani, who also manages the West Health Investment Fund, said “Post surgical rehab isn’t as effective as it could be. This technology also expands the capacity of physical therapists.”
He noted that since the fund was established, it has made about 11 investments. Among the fund’s investment priorities are early stage companies that can provide effective care at a lower cost providing. It added a 10th portfolio company with a $5 million investment in Svelte Medical, a New Jersey-based medical device company. Svelte has a drug-eluting stent under development for cardiac surgery that’s designed to reduce the risk of blood clots and inflammation Its coating is designed to dissolve as the drug is delivered. Although most of its portfolio companies tend to be health IT or digital health companies, GlySens is a medical device company that uses an implanted sensor for its continuous glucose monitoring system.
