The health tech company Paragit Solutions joined the Business Acceleration Academy program in February with a product that can change the way Parkinson’s patients are diagnosed. In mid-2018, Mohammad Filfil, engineer from DTU, decided to work on the development of a wearable shirt to assist him in his psychical training at the gym by giving feedback on which muscle groups were activated during a workout. What started as a hobby project with fellow students, soon developed into a solution with much greater potential, as the movement and muscle activity readings are biomarkers for Parkinson’s.
Today, the founding team, CEO Mohammad Filfil, CFO Li Ou, CMO Wahib Abboud and CTO Arvan Maani, have developed a sleeve that can collect data from Parkinson’s patients while they are at home. They are all from the Technical University of Denmark and have been working in collaboration with Ph.D. students in machine-learning and Medical Doctors in neuroscience, to bring the solution closer to the market.
We had a talk with CEO Mohammad Filfil about the idea and progression.
What problem do you solve?
We are trying to quantify the current assessment of Parkinson’s, as the global standard at the moment is based purely on a subjective assessment. Objective measures will give neurologists a better insight into the symptom progression and it will be easier to diagnose patients and help give them the correct medication dosage.
What is your solution?
We have developed a non-stigmatizing sleeve that registers the abnormal muscle activity of Parkinson’s patients and by combining this with movement readings, we can quantify muscle rigidity, tremor and slow movement, known as Bradykinesia. The sleeve is worn for a total of 48 hours in the patient’s own home and they can take it off and on by themselves. Many patients fear going to the doctor and we sometimes see how symptoms disappear when the patient is in front of the doctor. It solves the problem to have an in-home solution and the sleeve turns on and off automatically and it adjusts itself to any skin surfaces. It can measure how good the contact area is and thereby supervise the quality of the data during the 48 hours. Just one day of data gathering is equivalent to six months of consultations at a neurologist office.
How can this be used?
In combination with our software, we can quantify how severe the illness is and how the symptoms progress over time. It is not only relevant for diagnostics and treatment for individual patients, but also for research and development of medicine, so this kind of wearable carries a huge opportunity. With this hardware technology, we will also in the future be able to quantify other motor-related symptoms such as ALS, Huntington, Epilepsy and Alzheimer’s.
How far have you come?
We joined the Business Acceleration Academy to gain more knowledge about the field of medical devices and about how to initiate the pilot testing to validate that it works in a full-scale setting. We are ready with the technology and once the pandemic situation allows it, we will provide sleeves to pharma companies for the clinical trials.
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