Harmonic Bionics, the robotics company for augmenting human movement, announces a strategic partnership with South Korea-based medical robot manufacturer Curexo Inc. The agreement includes a $3 million investment from Curexo.
Harmonic Bionics will assist with US promotion and business development for Curexo’s Morning Walk S200, a robotic gait rehabilitation system, and CUVIS-spine, a surgical spine robot.
Effective immediately, Harmonic Bionics will be responsible for managing the first US installation of Morning Walk S200, an FDA-registered robotic gait rehabilitation system, at Spero Rehab Clinic in Austin, Texas. Morning Walk S200 is currently in use at 23 hospitals in South Korea.
Morning Walk S200 is an end-effector gait training system with a virtual reality component that uses a saddle for weight support and individual foot plates to facilitate more natural walking patterns, including slope and stair. The biofeedback and kinematic data provided by the system include individual foot pressure distribution and real-time pattern of hip, knee, and ankle angles to aid in comprehensive gait analysis.
“Over the past few weeks, we have been able to utilize Morning Walk S200 to treat many patients with different diagnoses including spinal cord injury, stroke, pediatric cerebral palsy, and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIPD),” said Carlos Montoya, physical therapist at Spero. “Compared to other gait training exoskeleton systems that we have used in our clinic, we like that Morning Walk S200 is much easier to don and doff, allowing for more exercise time during sessions. Our patients are also finding that this system requires more active movement and with the biofeedback, they can actually see their alignment and body weight distribution and adjust in real time.”
“We are excited that patients and therapists are seeing a real benefit from using Morning Walk S200 for gait training,” said Harmonic Bionics CEO Christopher Prentice. “As a strategic partner of Curexo’s, we intend to continue working with clinicians to validate that Morning Walk S200 is a valuable and differentiated solution for the US gait rehabilitation market.”
Currently, Curexo’s CUVIS-spine surgery robot is in use at two US hospitals, and the company will be working with Harmonic Bionics to identify a distributor for the product.
[Source(s): Harmonic Bionics, PR Newswire]
