FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Editorial Contacts
Richard M. Greenwald
Simbex LLC
(603) 448-2367
rgreenwald@simbex.com
Theresa Hays
Simbex LLC
(603) 448-2367
thays@simbex.com
SIMBEX RECEIVES MULTIPLE AWARDS FOR REHABILITATION PRODUCT
DEVELOPMENT THROUGH THE SMALL BUSINESS INNOVATION RESEARCH PROGRAM
Lebanon, NH - September 15, 2007 - Research and product development
firm Simbex has received $1.7M in awards from the National Institutes
of Health (NIH) related to rehabilitation products the company is developing.
Each of the three awards was made through the Small Business Innovation
Research (SBIR) program.
The National Institute of Aging awarded Simbex $750,000 to
complete development and commercialization of the ActiveStep™ fall-risk
assessment and fall prevention training system. The National Institute
for Child Health and Human Development awarded Simbex $850,000 to develop
an in-shoe monitoring system for children with toe walking gait pathology
common to Cerebral Palsy patients and $100,000 for a pilot development
of a novel orthopedic implant to improve prosthesis fit and overall comfort
and stability for lower-limb amputees.
“These awards are critically important for Simbex’s growth
in the rehabilitation field. Each project represents our goal of preventing
injuries before they occur and improving the quality of life for those
with disabilities.” said Richard Greenwald, PhD, founder and President
of Simbex. “The ActiveStep™ system was launched as a product
earlier this summer, we’ve sold the first units, and there has been
tremendous interest by the elderly services community. ActiveStep represents
a new opportunity to reduce the incidence and severity of falls in the
elderly. We are working together with clinicians and researchers both in
the public sector and within the Veterans Administration to quantify the
long-term benefit of this fall prevention program for both the individual
and for the medical system itself.” ActiveStep™ (patents)
is based on more than ten years of research by internationally renowned
researcher Mark Grabiner, PhD, of the University of Illinois, Chicago.
ActiveStep uses simple neuromuscular training to quickly improve an individual’s
ability to recover balance and avoid dangerous falls, and uses kinematic
measurements to assess progress.
The ActiveGait™ in-shoe monitoring system is a collaboration between
Simbex and Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital/Harvard professor Paolo Bonato,
PhD, Director of the Motion Analysis Laboratory in the Department of Physical
Rehabilitation, who recognized the difficulties of assessing the walking
biomechanics of CP children in the laboratory. “It is vital that we
better understand the clinical outcomes of interventions to reduce the incidence
of toe-walking in this population”, said Bonato. “ActiveGait
allows us to monitor the walking patterns of children as they go about their
lives at home rather than the more complex analysis that is performed at
most annually in the laboratory.”
ActiveImplant™ technology (patent pending) and product development
is a collaboration between Simbex and inventors John Fago, an above-knee
amputee and former prosthetist, Julie Fago, MD, and Michael Mayor, MD, a
renowned orthopedic surgeon and above knee amputee. “We believe this
technology can significantly improve the fit and comfort of above knee prosthesis
for amputees by surgically implanting a broad anatomic shaped implant at
the time of amputation or as a revision to amputation that will better distribute
loads, prevent rotation in the prosthetic socket, and allow more anatomical
weight bearing”, said Fago. “ActiveImplant will solve a number
of common clinical problems associated with above-knee amputation, and will
improve the quality of life and mobility of amputees”.
“Simbex is dedicated to commercialization of technologies in the rehabilitation
arena”, added Dave Bertoni, Vice President of Product Development
at Simbex. “The transfer of technology from these SBIR awards to the
marketplace represents Simbex’s commitment to creating innovative
products that make a difference in people’s lives.”
About Simbex LLC
Simbex is a research and product development company whose core expertise is biomechanical feedback systems. The company develops marketable products and solutions from emerging technologies for active life improvement in the areas of prosthetics, sports injury prevention and rehabilitation. The founders are internationally recognized experts in their fields and have decades of experience in the area of functional evaluation and efficacy assessment of complex biomechanical systems for the sporting goods, orthopedic and exercise equipment industries. The research branch of the company is supported in part by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Defense. For further information about Simbex, visit the company's Web site at http://www.simbex.com.
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