Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EQUIVert (Worldwide unique biofeedback system for non-invasive vertigo therapy and fall prevention)
Reporting period: 2019-08-01 to 2020-01-31
Vertigo – the perception of apparent movement between oneself and the environment – is the second most common symptom in medicine, only exceeded by pain. It causes around 30% of people to be treated once in a lifetime – many of them permanently. However, despite its high prevalence, patients with vertigo often receive either inappropriate or inadequate treatment. Main reasons for this unacceptable situation are insufficient interdisciplinary cooperation, non-existent standards in diagnostics and therapy, the relatively rare translations of basic science findings to clinical applications, and the scarcity of prospective controlled multicenter clinical trials. Fortunately, vertigo is treatable, because the human brain is extremely adaptable and can compensate for the loss of the balance organ. The form of therapy with the best prospects for long-term success is structured balance training, which teaches our brain to process the remaining information correctly. However, like any workout, balance training must be done on a sustained basis and successes are slow. This is where EQUIVert comes into play – EQUIVert is the personal balance trainer with biofeedback for the home use. The symptoms disappear faster, the workouts can be kept shorter and the effect lasts longer – even for people who have already experienced vertigo for some time.
At GED we have put together a highly skilled team for the determination of the technological, practical and economic viability of EQUIVert with the goal of realization and market introduction. The team is led by founder and managing director Hanno Platz, who will be responsible to establish the commercialization strategy.
With experienced hardware and software developers on board, we combine extensive project management, production planning and machine-oriented software solutions experience. Our personnel have longstanding experience in quality management as well as in the assembly of high-tech components. We have filled roles in marketing and communications, business development and roles required to comply with the medical devices acts and regulations.
At GED we have put together a highly skilled team for the determination of the technological, practical and economic viability of EQUIVert with the goal of realization and market introduction. The team is led by founder and managing director Hanno Platz, who will be responsible to establish the commercialization strategy.
With experienced hardware and software developers on board, we combine extensive project management, production planning and machine-oriented software solutions experience. Our personnel have longstanding experience in quality management as well as in the assembly of high-tech components. We have filled roles in marketing and communications, business development and roles required to comply with the medical devices acts and regulations.
We have identified current market trends and challenges, e.g. by potential competitors that could aim at our target market segment. Our commercialization strategy has been elaborated upon by including aspects such as sales channels, distribution partners, pricing models, and reimbursement schemes. We have identified potential first customers and further developed our understanding of their respective needs and how to address them. Especially in the field of B2B we have made great progress, established contacts and started collaborative projects. Our business plan now includes a detailed cost analysis (including cost structure, investment calculations and financing models), more realistic sales forecasts as well as a roadmap for further developments.
The human brain is capable of great accomplishments. One of its most notable abilities is that our brain is able to compensate for the partial or even complete failure of the vestibular organ. This ability is called central vestibular compensation. The better our brain learns to process only correct information and to ignore false sensory impressions, which could be evoked by diseases of the vestibular organ, the better our balance works. Balance training can specifically support these compensation processes. In comparison to other approaches, EQUIVert uses acoustic real-time stimuli to make the best use of this ability of the human brain. By doing so, EQUIVert can very specifically train the user’s brain to compensate wrong sensory information and help the user to overcome vertigo – with only 20 minutes of training per day. Furthermore, EQUIVert offers the first dynamic training approach, helping the user to train in real movement patterns (walking, turning), instead of just standing still on a platform.