Spanish company, developer of contactless/air pressure driven collaborative robot for physiotherapy, seeks partners for commercial agreements with technical assistance.

A Spanish startup has developed a highly innovative robotic technology within the medical-rehabilitation area after several years of research and development. This solution was born from the hands of a physiotherapist and uses robotic technology for the treatment of musculoskeletal pathologies. Back pain, a musculoskeletal disorder, is the leading cause of disability worldwide. It is also the most common reason why people visit their doctor and take time off work. Even though back pain is extremely common, there are no established guidelines or protocols when it comes to diagnosis and a typical 15-minute doctor’s visit is usually not enough to explain, understand and evaluate everything that’s going on in an achy back. Diagnoses also tend to be subjective, and the success of treatments, which often involve massage sessions, depends a lot on the quality of the therapist. People also have different pain thresholds, which makes it difficult to assess the evolution of the condition. The company has worked to address these challenges and make physiotherapy accessible to all. To achieve this, a fully automated unmanned physiotherapy robot has been developed, designed by physiotherapists for physiotherapists, who seek to have a collaborative tool that provides individual and real data of thermal measurement with traceability and evolution, as well as eliminating repetitive processes that do not provide value to the physiotherapist and above all serve to treat muscular pathologies through air pressure. Using artificial intelligence (AI), the robot identifies effective treatments and tracks the condition of patients. The robot begins by exploring the body with 3D thermal vision, identifying hot and cold spots. It then applies artificial intelligence to detect the type of back injury and define necessary treatments. This robotic treatment concept is based on a physiotherapy method widely used by physiotherapists that involves applying continuous pressure on MTP (myofascial trigger points). These points must be defined by a health professional (physician or physiotherapist) and thus determine the existence of the pathology that can be treated. The physiotherapy robot has been developed with the objective to fully support physiotherapists in the holistic personalised treatment of their patient´s muscle injuries. The robot has demonstrated to objectively aid with the diagnosis of muscle injuries by using infrared images of the body and is able to fully mimic a clinician’s pressure massage therapy using temperature-controlled pressurized-air. The clinical findings from patients have shown that this robot has a positive impact on the reduction of patient recovery time from 7 to 3 weeks and has contributed to lowering waiting lists and treatment costs by 40%. The company is looking for commercial agreements with technical assistance involving distributors and commercial partners. Distribution companies would preferable be international and with experience in high-end physiotherapy devices.