IRegained Inc. is a digital neurotherapeutics (DTx) company developing innovative data-driven personalized rehabilitation solutions for stroke and traumatic brain injury patients.
IRegained has developed the MyHand System, a patent-pending, proprietary targeted hand function rehabilitation system. It is a “smart,” IoMT based, telemedicine-enabled, mechatronic device with clinically effective, cloud-based proprietary hand function training protocols that enhance neuroplasticity and accelerate recovery of lost hand function in stroke survivors.
Patients can use the system in the clinic or at home through our telemedicine platform. With a mission to help 100 million stroke survivors worldwide with hand function disability, IRegained is launching the MyHand System in the market.
Tell us about yourself?
As a teenager, I was deeply interested in how the brain controlled the body and the hand. Most importantly, I was quite intrigued by what happens when someone loses this control and how does one enable these individuals to regain control.
My training in physiotherapy and neuroscience allowed me to pursue this passion. My interests were largely focused on understanding the mechanisms that mediate recovery in individuals with stroke with a specific focus on improving hand function. Restoring hand function in people after a stroke allows them to be independent in activities of daily living and in the process increases their quality of life.
To make a difference in people’s lives, I quit my academic career and start on this journey by building IRegained.
If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
I would advise myself to learn to relax, take some time off and enjoy life outside of what I do. However, this problem continues to pose a challenge. Perhaps one day I will learn to master that.
What problem does your business solve?
A stroke is a life-changing event. Annually, 65,000 people in Canada, 795,000 people in the US and ~15 million people globally sustain a stroke– that is 1 individual every 2 seconds. Due to brain damage from stroke 100 million people globally are forced to live with a paralyzed hand for the rest of their lives. Simple tasks such as eating, grooming etc., which we take for granted, poses a herculean challenges to stroke survivors, resulting in a negative impact on the overall quality of life and increasing the care burden on society. Currently, no effective and affordable hand rehabilitation interventions exist to solve this challenge.
What is the inspiration behind your business?
Despite all the scientific advances, to this day a significant number of individuals who have had brain trauma or stroke suffer from hand function disability. This is not acceptable.
We at IRegained are inspired to make a difference in the lives of these people.
Unfortunately, the current rehabilitation standard of care largely focuses on standing, walking and balance training, while very little focus is placed on the hand function. We at IRegained want to change the status quo so that stroke survivors can regain hand function and in the process reclaim their life.
What is your magic sauce?
IRegained has developed a truly innovative called the MyHand System. It is based on the foundation of deep neuroscience research and application of neuroplasticity through advanced engineering, advanced technology, sophisticated algorithms and telemedicine.
Extremely portable and caters to the unique customized needs of stroke patients and their disability. Most importantly our proprietary hand function rehabilitation protocols are unique to IRegained and have been developed using a very granular approach on fundamentals of grasp techniques to help restore hand function.
What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?
Our mission over the next 5 years is to build a company that redefines the rehabilitation landscape. Starting with the MyHand System, which has a presence in at least five markets generating revenues >$50 Million. Eventually, our vision is to expand to create a portfolio of products in the rehabilitation space that address other conditions and alleviate disability.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?
The biggest challenge was to attain early-stage funding for our medical device technology. To further complicate this situation, the turbulent environment posed by the COVID-19 pandemic led to shutdowns and restrictions on clinical studies and validation.
We resorted to refocusing our resources on product development and internal customer validation to advance our Beta prototype, which is now ready for clinical validation.
How can people get involved?
We would love to meet with medical device investors, social impact investors, philanthropic organizations/foundations, and family offices interested in disability alleviation, remote monitoring/rehabilitation, connected care and precision medicine.
To learn more, those interested can reach out to Vineet Johnson (Founder & CEO) at vineet@iregained.ca or +1-807-355-6979 or Mr. Samir Sahoo (COO) at samir@iregained.ca.