Flint Rehabilitation Devices Receives NIH Grant for Rehab Glove

Irvine, Calif.-based Flint Rehabilitation Devices LLC has been awarded a $1.5 million grant from the NIH to conduct randomized controlled trials of Musicglove, its hand rehabilitation device, on people with spinal cord injury and people who have recently experienced a stroke. The funding received by Flint is part of a two-year grant, which saw the company receive an initial $500,000 in 2014 to complete the commercialization of Musicglove, and the final $1 million secured for the clinical trials.

The spinal cord injury study will include 20 participants and will take place at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), while the stroke study takes place at both the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (Ill.) and at UCI with 20 participants at each location. Both studies are being headed by Principal Investigator Steven Cramer, M.D., a neurologist specializing in neural repair at the UC Irvine Medical Center.

Musicglove already has undergone both clinic- and home-based controlled trials with individuals in the chronic phase of stroke (defined as greater than six months since their stroke). Both studies showed that exercise with Musicglove leads to significantly greater improvements in hand use compared to conventional clinic- or home-based therapy, Flint claims. These quantitative gains translate to reported functional gains such as regaining the ability to open doorknobs, type on a keyboard, wash dishes, use silverware, bathe and wash, and use the rest room independently after exercising with the device. This is likely because the use of music and gaming in Musicglove therapy creates a fun experience that motivates people to practice moving their hands thousands of times in a row, a key requirement for neural rehabilitation. Similar results are expected in the upcoming studies, which would pave the way for Musicglove therapy to empower even more individuals to regain their independence after an injury.

“This generous grant from the National Institutes of Health is a further validation of the potential for Musicglove to impact the lives of the millions of people who have been affected by spinal cord injuries and stroke,” said Nizan Friedman, CEO of Flint Rehabilitation Devices. “The upcoming study will help provide an objective measure of the benefits that Musicglove can provide to these patient populations.”

Musicglove works by using a sensorized glove to track a patient’s hand movements. This allows the patient to play a therapeutic music-based game on an included touch screen console by completing specific movements timed to the rhythm of upbeat songs (similar to the popular video game Guitar Hero). Practicing these movements, such as the “pincer grasp” and “key pinch grip,” is vital to regaining the ability to use the hand after neural damage. Musicglove is hoped to motivate a high number of intensive and functional movements and exercise.

Musicglove is Flint’s flagship product. The company was founded in 2011 to create technology for people who have reached a plateau in their recovery.