In Mexico for a couple of speeches on disruption. If you haven’t been to Mexico City, definitely put it on your bucket list. It is fabulous.
Tej Tadi is a neuroscientist, engineer and entrepreneur and his innovative approach to stroke rehabilitation has earned him numerous accolades.
After years working in hospitals, Tadi realized traditional treatments for stroke patients weren’t motivating or frequent enough to maximize potential for a full recovery. In 2012, he created MindMaze, a neurorehabilitation company that uses virtual reality and neuroscience to repair broken connections in the brain, and retrain the body to move after a stroke. The technology has also been proven to alleviate symptoms of phantom pain in amputees.
Human machine interfaces powered by brain technology are where the future is. With these technologies, he was able to quickly see how something like virtual reality could truly make a difference in a patient’s life. Because there’s such a short window after a stroke when the brain can bounce back, starting treatment early is critical. MindMotion Pro can be used in-hospital just four days after a brain injury, and studies found the training intensity of stroke patients using the device almost doubled in the first 10 sessions.
Strokes are also devastating long-term, many patients have trouble motivating themselves once they were out of the hospital. With the portable MindMotion Go device, patients can start playing at home in just five minutes. Clinical research found patients motivated by the variety of goal-oriented games, practiced up to 15 times more therapeutic exercises compared to traditional treatments.
By 2016, the MindMaze VR technology was making its way into hospitals across Europe and Asia. In-patient devices like MindMotion Pro, and portable devices like MindMotion Go, have already helped more than 1,300 patients. Receiving FDA approval in 2017, MindMaze is being launched in the US, where strokes are the fifth leading cause of death. Non-preventable risk factors for Strokes
- Age: after 55, the risk of stroke almost doubles every 10 years
- Gender: women are more likely to suffer or die from a stroke than men
- Family history: incidences of stroke may run in the family
Treatable risk factors for strokes
- High blood pressure
- Smoking
- Heart disease
- Diabetes
- Poor diet
- Lack of physical activity
- High cholesterol
- Obesity
The impact of strokes
- Every 40 secs someone in the US suffers a stroke
- The American Stroke Association reported almost 800,000 people in the US had a stroke in 2016
- Almost every 4 mins someone dies from a stroke
- 2 million brain cells are lost each minute a stroke patient is left untreated
- Stroke patients treated within 90 mins are three times more likely to recover with little to no disability
- In 2015, stroke deaths were the second leading cause of death worldwide, with 12% of deaths caused by strokes
- In 2017, strokes were listed as the fifth leading cause of death in the US
- 6.6 million Americans 20 years and older are stroke victims, according to the most recent available data from 2016
- $34 billion is how much is spent annually in the US on stroke care, according to a 2017 update from The American Heart Association
The brain is a wonderful organ; it starts working the moment you get up in the morning and doesn’t stop until you get to work.