Indiana-made device helps manual therapy go digital
Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA physical therapist at Indiana University Indianapolis is hopeful her vision for a device to help patients recover from injuries and pain will soon be on the market.
Dr. Terry Loghmani worked with two Purdue University engineers to create a device that can measure the amount of force a therapist applies during manual therapy, which is what most people would think of as targeted massage that is typically used with exercise to help people heal.
Indianapolis-based Boomerang Ventures recently acquired the device with plans to submit it for approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Loghmani told Business of Health Reporter Kylie Veleta that much like smartwatches give detailed exercise data, the device advances manual therapy into the digital era.
“The ability to measure the dose that you’re giving like just like you measure the dose that you give prescription medications, we should be able to measure that so that it becomes more precise for precision care, individualized,” Loghmani said. “It isn’t about saying that what we’ve done in therapy is wrong, but it’s taking it to that next level of ended up individualized precision care.”
The device also connects to software that captures the data in real time, which gives the therapist live feedback and creates a detailed report that could be used among different therapists to keep the treatment consistent.
Loghmani said the development of the device, known as a quantifiable soft tissue manipulation, or QSTM, system, was the result of a true collaboration with Purdue engineers Sohel Anwar and Stanley Chien, calling it a very fruitful and rewarding experience.
“You have to work through communication to build a common language with each other and a common vision together,” she said. “But it’s very clear that we needed each other in order to bring those two disciplines together to create this.”
Loghmani, Anwar and Chien founded Health Smart Technologies, which was acquired last year by Precision Care Technologies Inc., a portfolio company of Boomerang Ventures that will exclusively license the technology.
“Right now we’re looking at a go-to-market strategy to make it available,” Loghmani said. “We’ve also been continuing our research with the device system, helping to show that it helps improve consistency between therapists and the amount of force that they’re applying. So from the patient experience, it will feel more consistent if you have two different therapists.”
Loghmani said the company does have a patent in place for the technology, and she is excited to see the device eventually become available for therapists.
“Being able to advance non-invasive, non-pharmacological approaches to health care, it helps people seeking more of that non-invasive way of moving better, feeling less pain, and getting back to full function, that it will help to achieve that goal for people.”
Editor’s Note: A previous version of this story incorrectly referred to Precision Care Technologies by its former name, BVS Muscle.