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Functional Electrical Stimulation for at Home Rehabilitation

Project description

Rehabilitation at home

Stroke may leave patients with motor impairment and difficulty in undertaking everyday tasks such as walking or eating. Functional electrical stimulation (FES) is a treatment method that applies electrical impulses to nerves or muscles as a rehabilitation strategy. The EU-funded WalkHome project has developed a neuroprosthetic device that utilises FES to treat foot drop, the difficulty of lifting the front part of the foot. The main advantage is that it allows tailored rehabilitation treatment at the comfort of one’s home and at significantly lower cost. Moreover, it will improve the independence and quality of life of stroke patients.

Objective

The Context
Stroke has huge human and economic cost. 1 million people suffer strokes in Europe every year, with an average life expectancy after stroke of 8 years. Roughly 20% of stroke survivors suffer from drop foot, with 45 billion euros spent on rehabilitating stroke patients in Europe every year.
The opportunity:
FES offers the tantalising prospect of retraining voluntary motor functions such as walking. However:
- FES rehabilitation must be carried out in a hospital with the support of trained healthcare professionals;
- Transporting patients and supervising treatment is expensive;
- Patient’s treatment plan is sub-optimal;
- Per patient rehabilitation costs reach 32,000 euros
Our solution:
Fesia WalkHome is a FES rehabilitation device for drop foot patients which can be administered by the patient in their own home. This not only reduces costs by 43% but also means patients can have an optimal treatment plan, improving their speed of recovery.
The use of Fesia Walk at home will give autonomy, independence and improve the quality of life for chronic patients. It will also mean a substantial reduction of waiting lists, health costs, number of physician office visits, and carer support.
The Project:
WalkHome represents a disruptive change of paradigm for the FES rehabilitation standard of care. The aim of the phase 1 project is to improve our understanding of the EU market for FES rehabilitation, identifying regional market variations in terms of key decision makers, appropriate business models, pricing structure and identifying which are the most attractive markets for us to use as a beachhead. We will also analyse what key improvements need to be made to the existing technology to create the new FES home care rehabilitation market.
The Market:
Currently, there is no FES rehabilitation technology that is offered outside of a clinical setting. We estimate that this new home FES rehabilitation market could be worth up to 40 billion euros in Europe alone.

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020

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Coordinator

FESIA TECHNOLOGY SL
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 50 000,00
Address
PASEO MIKELETEGI 58 PARQUE CIENTIFICO Y TECNOLOGICO DE GIPUZKOA
20009 DONOSTIA SAN SEBASTIAN
Spain

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SME

The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.

Yes
Region
Noreste País Vasco Gipuzkoa
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 71 429,00
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