Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

388813 01: A photo illustration depicts a person typing May 4, 2001 in Denver, CO. National Academy of Sciences estimates that musculoskeletal disorders such as carpal-tunnel syndrome, tendinitis, and lower back pain cost the nation $45 billion to $54 billion in compensation, lost wages, and lower productivity each year. (Photo by Michael Smith/Newsmakers) On Monday, a Silicon Valley-based bioelectronic medicine company raised tens of millions of dollars to help the more than 7 million Americans who struggle with essential tremor (ET). The company, named Cala Health, closed a $50 million funding round co-led by Vertex Growth Fund and Nexus NeuroTech Ventures. All of the company’s existing investors also participated in the round, including GV, Johnson & Johnson, Lux Capital, OSF Ventures and Ascension Ventures. Cala was founded in 2014 as a Stanford University spinout. Its main goal is to give patients a better option for treating their ET — which is a neurological disorder characterized by involuntary shaking that usually affects the hands, head or voice. presented by Market Trends to Watch for Health Systems and Their Specialty Pharmacies The future looks bright for the integrated specialty pharmacy model – for health systems, providers, and most importantly, for patients. By Jake Gaffey, MBA, Chief Strategy Officer at Shields Health Solutions The condition can have a significant effect on people’s essential abilities, such as writing, eating and speaking, pointed out Cala CEO Deanna Harshbarger. “As a result, these tremors can impact mental health and discourage people from doing what they love. Clinical studies estimate 50% of ET patients suffer from social phobia, and 80% of ET patients suffer from depression that can severely impact quality of life,” she stated. The drugs used most often to treat ET include beta-blockers such as propranolol and an epilepsy drug called primidone. While these medications are effective for some patients, they can also induce a range of undesirable side effects such as fatigue, nausea and depression — and some patients might not be able to take these drugs due to contraindications with comorbidity, Harshbarger noted. There are also surgical options, like deep brain stimulation or ablation — but not all patients are keen on invasive procedures, she added. Exclusive Heard at HLTH 2024: Insights from Innovative Healthcare Executives Executives from Imagine360, Verily, BrightInsight, Lantern, and Rhapsody shared their approaches to reducing healthcare costs and facilitating digital transformation. By MedCity News Last year, Cala gave ET patients a new option through the commercial launch of its kIQ system, which the company says is the first noninvasive wearable device cleared by the FDA to temporarily relieve tremors in people with ET and Parkinson’s disease. “Our goal is to leverage bioelectronic medicine to transform the standard of care for chronic disease and allow patients to live life fully,” Harshbarger declared. The kIQ system is a wrist-worn device prescribed by physicians to manage a patient’s hand tremors. It senses each patient’s unique tremor signature and individualizes stimulation, Harshbarger said. The at-home therapy system delivers transcutaneous afferent patterned stimulation (TAPS) therapy, meaning it applies specific patterns of electrical stimulation through the skin to modulate neural activity and promote therapeutic effects. Using TAPS, the device noninvasively counteracts the patient’s tremor through the nerves on the wrist, she explained. Once a patient completes an at-home therapy session, they can view their body’s responses via Cala’s online patient portal. Nine out of 10 patients experience tremor reduction with a complete 40-minute session, Harshbarger noted. Medicare, the VA and several commercial health plans pay for the therapy, she said. She also said that Cala has no direct competitors, given there are no other companies selling FDA-cleared, noninvasive neurostimulation devices for the relief of hand tremor. There are some other companies developing devices to treat ET using noninvasive neurostimulation, including Allevion Therapeutics and Encora Therapeutics, but they haven’t cleared regulatory hurdles yet in the U.S. Cala is also currently in the process of developing TAPS therapy-based solutions for other indications, such as cardiology and psychiatry, Harshbarger said.

Millions of Americans suffer from chronic conditions that affect the hand each year, such as the 1.5 million people with rheumatoid arthritis and up to 10 million people with carpal tunnel syndrome. This week, Mayo Clinic forged a partnership aimed at improving treatment for these patients. The health system announced a collaboration with Exer AI, a Denver-based startup focused on improving care for patients with musculoskeletal and movement disorders. Under the partnership, Mayo Clinic will use Exer’s AI platform to diagnose and treat dozens of acute and chronic hand and wrist conditions. Exer, founded in 2019, trained its proprietary AI engine to understand human motion. Specifically, the company trained its technology to understand a library of important functional assessments, such as total active motion, gait analysis, Kapandji score and fall risk, explained CEO Zaw Thet. presented by Health Tech The Promise of Value-Based Care and MedTech Innovation Monica Vajani, Executive Director for mHUB’s MedTech Accelerator, discusses how mHUB is helping innovators transition healthcare towards value-based care. By Monica Vajani “The assessments run on a tablet — with the patient standing in front of the camera — and take about 30 seconds. We don’t use sensors, straps or wearables. The measurements are accurate and objective to reduce variance among practitioners, faster than doing it manually and allow us to see ‘more stuff’ than a human can if they perform the same assessment themselves,” he declared. Exer seeks to improve diagnosis and treatment for musculoskeletal and motion disorders wherever the patient is — whether that be in their provider’s office, their home or via telehealth appointment — Thet pointed out. He also noted that the company designs its software for clinicians across multiple specialities, including orthopedics, neurology, spine, geriatrics and physical therapy. “The platform offers our healthcare customers accurate, objective functional assessments that run on common mobile devices without extra hardware or sensors, freeing up time and resources by optimizing patient volume and efficiency across the continuum of care from referral through to recovery,” Thet stated. presented by Health Tech What’s Keeping Healthcare CIOs Up at Night: How to Improve Patient Satisfaction by Handling Calls More Efficiently Health systems have spent billions on portals while investments in modernizing the voice channel — the dominant preference of healthcare consumers — have taken a backseat. By Stephanie Baum Under the new collaboration, Mayo Clinic will be using Exer’s technology to perform assessments in the clinic, in remote settings and via telehealth visits. Dr. Steven Moran, a Mayo Clinic surgeon and president of the American Society for the Surgery of Hands, will be working with his team to co-develop and distribute a clinical module for hand assessments inside Exer’s platform, Thet said. “We’ll develop and validate that module with their team, and we’ll aim to present the outcome findings to the society as a new global standard of care/approved protocol for hand and wrist injuries,” he stated. Exer is currently serving nine health systems, though Mayo Clinic is the only one that Thet is permitted to name at this time, he said. Though there are other digital health companies in the musculoskeletal space, such as Hinge Health, Thet said that his company is the only one with software that runs exclusively on mobile devices. “We’re often competing with legacy hardware — big machines that do these measurements, often with sensors, straps or wearables. In health systems, that could be something like a gait analysis lab, or Microsoft Kinect sensor systems,” he explained. The big difference is that Exer’s platform is “pure software,” like an app in the App Store, Thet declared. He pointed out that this brings the advantages of portability and easy implementation, which makes it easier to conduct rollouts across large health systems.

DENVER, Sept. 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Exer AI, a clinical AI company addressing musculoskeletal (MSK) and movement disorders, today announced a collaboration with Mayo Clinic to extend Exer's advanced computer-vision and AI platform to the diagnosis and treatment of dozens of acute and chronic hand and wrist disorders. This collaboration focuses on protocols to perform in-clinic, remote and telehealth assessments without the need for wearables or sensors. Continue Reading Exer AI for hand and wrist disorders, a collaboration with Mayo Clinic. Exer is a clinical AI company that helps healthcare teams drive clinical efficiency, improve accuracy, and achieve higher patient volumes for MSK and motion disorders. The proprietary AI and computer vision platform performs accurate, validated motion diagnostics and assessments across in-clinic and remote sessions. Exer's AI-based hand and wrist module analyzes human body biomarkers to measure, assess, and monitor patient movement. The resulting data helps practitioners determine prognosis, diagnose conditions accurately, streamline workflows, and expand patient access through pre- and post-visit care. The module is part of the overall Exer platform that complements existing human-centered care protocols by providing objective data to inform clinical decision-making. Millions of patients suffer chronic conditions that affect the hand like rheumatoid arthritis and carpal tunnel syndrome every year. Exer is designed to streamline care pathways, accelerate diagnosis, and improve treatment efficacy. Empowering pediatricians, primary care, and emergency room doctors to identify these pathologies with confidence leads to earlier intervention and a reduction in complications. "Our collaboration with Mayo Clinic is an exciting and foundational step towards improving care for millions of hand and wrist patients nationwide," said Zaw Thet, CEO and co-founder of Exer AI. "Our approach is to innovate on top of our proprietary AI models to produce vital clinical software modules that don't rely on expensive hardware or invasive sensors. We designed the Exer platform to address motion disorders that span specialties like hand and wrist, neurology, pain/spine, PM&R, orthopedics and geriatrics to offer large health systems a complete solution they can trust to improve care at scale." The collaboration team at Mayo Clinic includes Nicholas Pulos, MD, Hand and Microvascular Surgeon, Jess Rames, MD, MEng, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, and Steven Moran, MD, Professor of Plastic Surgery and Orthopedic Surgery and President of the American Society for the Surgery of the Hand (ASSH). By combining AI and computer-vision technology, Exer AI and Mayo Clinic aim to create more efficient, accurate, and accessible care pathways for hand and wrist conditions. This collaboration underscores a shared commitment to innovation and excellence in patient care. About Exer AI Based in Denver, CO, Exer is a clinical AI company that helps healthcare teams drive clinical efficiency, improve accuracy, and achieve higher patient volumes for MSK and motion disorders. The proprietary AI and computer vision platform performs accurate, validated motion diagnostics and assessments across in-clinic and remote sessions, Exer AI works seamlessly without the need for sensors or wearables to improve patients' lives and providers' decision-making across complex care needs in multiple specialities, including orthopedics, neurology, pain/spine, PM&R, geriatrics, and more. Conflict of Interest Statement Mayo Clinic has a financial interest in the technology referenced in this press release. Mayo Clinic will use any revenue it receives to support its not-for-profit mission in patient care, education, and research. CONTACT: Derek Shanahan, [email protected] SOURCE Exer AI