Dr. Albert Kwon, CEO of Brainnovations Winner AUGMENTx, wants to harness Augmented Reality to significantly ease access to Neurological Rehabilitation Therapies

___ Albert, what surprised you the most from the Judges’ questions and feedback during the Brainnovations Pitch Contest? It was a pleasant surprise to receive so many votes and such great feedback, which solidified my conviction that there is a great need to create new therapy options for stroke patients and other neurological injuries, especially given our aging population.  Medical systems worldwide will struggle to handle the growing burden of chronic illnesses unless we start acting soon. In a nutshell, what is the core idea behind AUGMENTx? The core idea is to leverage visual-cognitive and visual-motor/sensory connections of the brain to enhance performance in disease states.  For example, mirror therapy takes advantage of the mirror neuron pathway to improve post-stroke motor recovery and to alleviate phantom limb pain in limb amputees.  And we believe that these therapies can be delivered on digitized AR platforms, instead of being always confined to few specialized physical rehabilitation centers.  Why not have them be accessible from the patient’s home, especially in rural areas where there is often no access to any kind of rehab? When and how did the idea come to you? I realized the potential of augmented reality at a hackathon event at MIT, after a grueling 28 hour hospital shift.  My co-founders had created a proof-of-concept prototype and presented it to me when I visited the demo station. It was a revelation, since a week prior ...
Source: SharpBrains - Category: Neuroscience Authors: Tags: Cognitive Neuroscience Health & Wellness Professional Development Technology aging aging-population Albert Kwon augmented reality augmented reality therapy platform AUGMENTx Brain-health Brainnovations chronic-illness digital the Source Type: blogs