FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Richard M. Greenwald
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.”
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