Brainbot is a Toronto-based health technology company with the mission of democratizing functional recovery. Our first product is the world’s first Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered Concussion Recovery Assistant. Leveraging clinical best practices and artificial intelligence, it provides personalized, accessible, real-time education and guidance that people with persistent concussion symptoms can use to help manage their symptom triggers and support them in confidently returning to daily activities.
Tell us about yourself?
I am the Chief Clinical Officer of Brainbot, which I co-founded alongside my life partner, Adam. While Adam brings a business and policy lens to the company, my background is in healthcare. Specifically, I have over 10 years of experience as an Occupational Therapist (OT) treating brain injuries, which partially led us to co-found Brainbot. As an OT, I witnessed patients unnecessarily suffer for years due to a lack of access to the right tools at the right time, but I also experienced these challenges first-hand when I personally suffered a concussion a few years ago. Experiencing these gaps from both a healthcare provider and patient perspective – and Adam from the caregiver perspective while I had my concussion – inspired us to create Brainbot to improve the standard of care for concussion treatment.
If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
I would give myself the reality check that entrepreneurship is a long road! Building, testing, and deploying important technologies is challenging and takes time, especially in health care, where patients’ health and wellness are on the line. It’s critical to be ambitious in your timelines, but it’s also important to be clear-eyed about the challenges and realities at hand.
What problem does your business solve?
Brainbot equips concussion patients with easily accessible tools and resources to support symptom management during their recovery journey. We provide tools for tracking daily activities and symptoms, offer personalized feedback and clinician-vetted strategies, and allow patients to see and feel their progress through dynamic charts and insights.
As a result, patients are well-informed as they navigate their recovery, and their healthcare team can also leverage these insights to offer more personalized care.
What is the inspiration behind your business?
As I mentioned, the inspiration for Brainbot comes from a combination of my and Adam’s personal experiences with concussions. For me, it was through my professional experience as an OT treating patients with concussions and then as a concussion patient myself, where I felt there was an opportunity to provide concussion patients with more agency and ownership in their recovery journey. For Adam, it was through his role as my caregiver throughout my recovery journey that he also felt there was an opportunity for more support tools. During my 8-month recovery, I know I would have really benefited from the accessible and tailored advice that Brainbot provides patients.
Concussion recoveries can be difficult and lengthy, and keeping up with new recommendations and the latest studies is an added challenge. For instance, while the common wisdom is to avoid screens while recovering from a concussion, recent studies have found some screen time may be better than none after a concussion. Our goal is to lighten the load for patients by providing them with clinician-approved guidance so they can focus their energy on their recovery.
What is your magic sauce?
I think our magic sauce comes from our unique first-person perspective on concussion recovery from the patient, caregiver, and healthcare provider sides. We are also the only digital concussion recovery assistant that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to power our technology. Leveraging AI helps us to efficiently capture and analyze patient symptoms and triggers to provide our users with personalized, actionable strategies tailored to their everyday routines and needs.
What is the plan for the next 5 years?
Over the next five years, our goal is to raise awareness of Brainbot and increase the number of healthcare professionals and patients integrating the platform into their treatment plan for brain injuries.
We aspire to improve the standard of care for concussion patients and offer them a treatment solution best suited to their lifestyle and needs, enabling them to recover quicker. More broadly, we hear from many Occupational Therapists about their desire to use Brainbot for other health conditions, so we will also explore how Brainbot can help expand access to critical OT interventions above and beyond concussions!
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?
As I mentioned, suffering from a concussion was a huge challenge for myself and Adam. It disrupted my usual routine and activities, and the challenge of accessing the right resources for my recovery greatly impacted all aspects of my life. This is what inspired me to pivot from being a full-time OT to creating Brainbot, which was a challenge in itself, as a career change would be for anyone.
Navigating the entrepreneurial landscape to leverage technology to provide enhanced care presents a significant challenge. Adam and I aimed to not only distinguish Brainbot from competitors but ensure the app effectively meets the diverse requirements of concussion patients, their healthcare team, and the ultimate payer. We are grateful to have the support of over 100 mentors through the Techstars Healthcare Accelerator as we aim to deeply understand our path to success in the world’s largest healthcare market, the United States.
Beginning this startup, of course, takes up a lot of our time, so balancing the overwhelming commitment that comes with being entrepreneurs and the needs of our family always becomes a challenge at times. Fortunately, we can lean on one another to ensure Brainbot and our family are always attended to.
How can people get involved?
Anyone suffering through a concussion recovery or providing treatment for patients suffering from a concussion should get in touch! You can visit our website at www.brainbot.co to learn more.