German Reactive Robotics Increases Efficiency In Healthcare Through Very Early Mobilization Therapy

How would you describe Reactive Robotics in a few words?

Reactive Robotics develops intelligent assistive devices for the VEM treatment of intensive care unit patients. Our focus is on the most severely sick patients. We complement manual therapy with robotic assistance with the main objectives:

• Faster parient recovery and
• assistance for therapists and nurses to provide effective therapy.

What inspired you to create the startup? How did it all start?

Working as an engineer in hospitals in Switzerland, Germany and the US I realized that the demographic trend of our aging society, in combination with a continuously increasing shortage of nurses and therapists will become a real problem in the future. The number of patients is rising while society does not have enough people to take care of them. The idea was to use robotics to improve the efficiency of clinicians so that they can keep on providing the best possible care to patients.

I tried to place the idea with several larger companies, who all liked it, but found it too risky, so I figured that someone needs to have the courage to do it and that someone would be me.

With Very Early Mobilization Therapy – VEM – you focus on critically ill patients and their therapists and nurses to increase efficiency in the healthcare system. What can you tell us about the therapy? How does it work?

It’s actually rather simple: our bodies are made for movement, particularly for upright movement. Lying in bed for an extended period of time leads to a variety of degradation processes that stand in the way of recovery. You lose muscle mass, bone density decreases, your cardio-vascular system degrades – the list goes on. Physiotherapy counters these problems, but it is hard to implement with severely affected patients. Try putting a patient on his/her feet when they are paralyzed, sedated or even in a coma – the result is that either three to four therapists are required to perform the treatment with one patient, or the patient cannot receive optimal therapy. That’s where we use robotics to support the therapists: one therapist can now perform therapy with a patient in an optimal way.

Alexander, you yourself have eight years of research experience in stroke rehabilitation robotics. Which kind of illnesses will Reactive Robotics focus on?

We will start with neurological injuries and diseases – that’s where the strongest body of clinical research is available. We will then extend to cardio and orthopedic patients that are in the need of physiotherapy but are often too severely affected to get out of bed.

Also, a clear demand has been expressed to us in the geriatric and homecare area, which will be addressed in the mid-term future.

What is the biggest challenge that the company has faced?

From what I hear in my network – and we are no exception – it is always to find funding.

We’ve recently featured you in our Breakdown on Startup Driven Innovation in e-Health. From your perspective and apart from robotics, what other technologies will deeply impact healthcare?

That’s hard to predict – disruption can come from any side. Mobile health will allow patients in remote areas to see a doctor. Great advances in terms of productivity increases can, in my opinion, be expected from digitally streamlining processes. A first gene-therapy has just successfully been tested in the US on cancer patients. And artificial intelligence promises to find new treatment pathways to cancer and other diseases. There are so many brilliant people out there trying to improve healthcare, it’s impossible to predict where the next big step forward occurs.

What’s next for Reactive Robotics?

Next is the market entry in 2018. Doctors and in general healthcare professionals expressed a clear demand for our solution, nevertheless selling a new innovative technology is probably the hardest thing in med-tech.

If there is one thing you could wish for in improving the European startup ecosystem – what would it be?

I’m pretty happy here in Germany. Of course, there is always talk of less bureaucracy and of fundraising being easier in the US. I only can speak for Germany, as it is the place I know. Germany offers one great advantage: our social security system. Starting a company is a risky business, but knowing that all my employees and even myself will be caught by a safety net if things go wrong reduced the risk of starting a company.

What’s one piece of advice you can give to fellow founders for their startup?

The best piece of advice was given to me by my brother when I was worried about quitting my safe job and venturing into the unknown. He said: “I cannot promise you that it will work, but I can promise you that you will get an answer to the question ‘What would have happened if…’“.

So I would pass on this piece of advice: no one can guarantee success, but if you don’t try, you will never know.

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