If you break your hand you end up going to a doctor, getting a cast for 5 weeks, and then rehabilitating for approximately another 5 weeks. Basically we are talking about a 10-week period in which you’ll be limited to using one of your arms for the majority of your work. Luckily, the Spanish company Exovite has chosen to combine 3D printing, software, and a bit of electrical engineering to create a new, more modern, and efficient way to heal from a broken arm/foot.
After completing participation at the Microsoft Accelerator in Israel, the company returned back to Zaragoza, Spain. Now they are close to closing a deal with a client to start the medical trials and until that is complete, they’ll continue to bootstrap.
Exovite’s System
The Immobilization System is based off of a 3D scanner that accurately measure and analyze a person’s arm, which is then printable via a 3D printer directly onto a person’s arm. The entire process takes less than 5 minutes, with the printing itself taking somewhere around 30 seconds.
The second half of the process in a broken limb is rehabilitation. The Rehabilitation System uses an electrostimulator that can be used only after two weeks. With their technology, instead of waiting until the immobilization is complete to start rehabilitation, the two processes overlap.
The electrical muscle stimulation device has its own/off switch, a micro-usb data download system, a rechargeable lithium-ion battery that enables two hours of work at a time, and it can all be controlled by the Exopad – Exovite’s app for ios and Android. With the app: control the different aspects of the electrostimulator advice, get medical advice online, and it even has a gamification feature to keep the motivation as high as possible.
Does the patient control everything themselves? Fortunately no. Just like the patient can install the Exopad application, the doctors have the Propad:
- a computer app that enables the physician to monitor and manage treatment, and of course the doctor can personalize it for use with different patients. The features include: control of the stimulator device, gathering measurements and analysis of the progress of each patient, and the doctors can easily conduct an assessment with a patient via a phone’s camera.
Exovite is still not on the market. As CEO Juan Monzon put it, the process is about 90% complete.
Understand the Exovite Process
Doctors Still Have Control
Do we want doctors losing control of what their patients to/don’t do? This is not artificial intelligence. Exovite does one thing for both the patient and the doctor: a more effective and efficient process for broken limbs (for now hands). We’ll be honest – we have not tried it out yet, however if entire process works as planned, then there we do expect to see this in a doctor’s office, hopefully as early as this coming September.
Even though futurists think that doctors will be replaced at some point, we are not at that point yet. In the meantime we need entrepreneurs to develop technology that will help doctors fulfill their responsibilities at the highest level.
We are working on new products related with 3D imagining and prevention of serious ligament problems and of course new versions of our products with more options and features. – Juan Monzon, CEO Exovite