Imagine having a standardized unit of measurement for muscular movements, akin to blood tests. It would be an objective way to corroborate how for instance, gait and posture might be related to chronic lower back pain.
Why might you need this? To "get a baseline on how you move and any kind of discomfort related to movement," says Dr. Nan-Wei Gong, CEO and founder of Figur8, a new healthtech startup that emerged out of the MIT Media Lab. It exited stealth with $7.5 million in seed funding.
With Figur8, Gong wanted to create an objective way to measure and track body movement as a biomarker.
"I wanted to understand movement like a blood test," Gong said. "With the same unit, same language and a similar tool for measurement."
Gong, who specializes in sensor networks and design, worked on building a cost-effective and portable on-body assessment sensor in collaboration with Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Sports Science Lab. With Figur8's "Flextech" sensor, which looks like a resistance band, clinicians can take clients through an assessment to establish a movement health baseline, diagnose movement dysfunction, identify injury risk, optimize exercise routines and monitor progress.
Figur8 is Gong's third startup, but it's her most personal venture yet. When Gong saw a physical therapist who works on biomechanics for her chronic lower back pain, she was asked to rectify her gait and posture.
"It helped me tremendously," she said.
Her experience in making tech wearables helped her see an opportunity.
"Massage therapists, doctors, physical therapists are all looking at the problem in different ways because you don’t have symptoms," Gong said. "They don't focus on how muscle moves."
She thought she could combine a biomechanics researcher's tools with her hardware experience to get a baseline assessment of any muscular-related discomfort. She began work on Figure8 in 2017. Two years later, she has successfully built an affordable sensor technology that quantifies a combination of micrometer precision signals of muscle activity and joint mobility to give information on movement-related biomarkers like imbalance, gait, posture and more.
Figur8's movement testing equipment claims to be a more effective solution than MRIs and X-rays for screening soft tissue-related symptoms.
The company, funded by P5 Health Ventures and MIT fund E14, operates on a B2B model and is currently working with elite athletes, teams, training facilities and major occupational and physical therapy clinics.
To get a general assessment using Figur8, one would be required to wear the device for five to 10 minutes and perform a few activities like walk, pick up an object etc. to get data for biomarkers. The advanced movement data – including muscle activation timing and intensity with joint angles, acceleration and motion in 3D space – will then be made instantly available through a web platform.
Medical experts like orthopedic doctors can then either prescribe drugs or exercises based on the results.
The company has been running clinical studies at the orthopedic department at MGH for the past two years and is testing the product in preparation for its commercial push.
Pending FDA approvals, Figur8 will expand its reach to work on neuromuscular diseases like Parkinson's.
