Bristol-based Solesense, the startup revolutionising stroke rehabilitation, wins Setsquared's Tech-Xpo 2023

What does your doctor think of this newest one since you are probably already using one of these already? NO? THEN HOW FUCKING INCOMPETENT ARE YOU ALLOWING YOUR DOCTOR TO BE IN NOT HAVING INTERVENTIONS FOR YOUR GAIT REHAB?

• Gait Enhancing Mobile Shoe (2 posts to December 2017)

• instrumented shoes (2 posts to May 2016)
  

• jump shoes (1 post to August 2014)

• unstable shoes (6 posts to May2012)

• insole (3 posts to October 2015)

• insoles (5 posts to May 2016)

• postural insoles (2 posts to August 2017)

• vibratory insole (3 posts to May 2016)

• Vibratory Insoles (1 post to January 2021)

 

Bristol-based Solesense, the startup revolutionising stroke rehabilitation, wins Setsquared's Tech-Xpo 2023

By Peter Davison

3 July 2023

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Nathan Guest from VWV with Caz Icke from SoleSense

Bristol-based Solesense, a startup that is revolutionising stroke rehabilitation has won Best Elevator Pitch at Setsquared'sTech-Xpo 2023 showcase.

Caz Icke’s startup uses shoe sensors and a real-time biofeedback application to provide personalised digital physiotherapy to stroke patients.

Founded in 2019, SoleSense was conceived by Caz’s own experience as a specialist neuro-rehabilitation physio working with stroke patients.

Read more: Tech incubator SETsquared reveals its 16 Tech-Xpo finalists

She found that the national average for NHS physiotherapy provision is nowhere near enough to give the 100,000 stroke survivors per year in the UK the rehabilitation time they need.

SoleSense can be used as an adjunct for clinicians and individuals alike and is designed to enable patients to do more independent rehabilitation.

Patients can wear the insoles continuously to improve performance in balance and walking, enabling them to track their own progress and set collaborative goals with their therapist.

The startup joined our incubation programme in 2022 to join a community of healthtech and tech startups and to get support with fundraising. Prior to this, Caz was a recipient of SETsquared Bristol’s Enterprising Women, a business support programme fully funded by NatWest.

Now in its 19th year, Tech-Xpo is Setsquared's flagship annual showcase where selected companies exhibit and pitch in front of an audience of over 100 investors and business movers and shakers.

Previous Tech-Xpo winners have gone on to achieve notable success. Ferryx, the 2021 winner, closed its first investment round of £300k shortly afterwards and has since launched its gut health supplement, Ferrocalm.

KETS Quantum Security, the 2020 winner, has raised £3.1 million pre-series A to pioneer quantum encryption on a chip, and last year’s winner, Inclued, has seen its CEO and Founder Joyann Boyce named 30 under 30 by Rife Magazine and Change Maker by BIMA100 in the same year as winning Tech-Xpo.

Caz said: “It was a great pleasure to take part in Tech-Xpo; the warm atmosphere and friendly camaraderie made it easy to relax and enjoy the moment, with winning the icing on the cake.

"It is always great to receive such a boost on a journey that can be pretty challenging, especially as a sole founder. SETsquared has given me brilliant support and I’m really looking forward to the next stage of raising funds to grow the business.”

Visit Hampshire Biz News for bright, upbeat and positive business news from the county

Kimberley Brook, SETsquared Bristol’s director, said: “SoleSense was a very popular choice at Tech-Xpo, which was no mean feat considering the exceptional line-up of talent and pitching prowess on show.

"Caz is one of Bristol’s leading female clinical entrepreneurs, has won prestigious grants and has a bright future.”

Tech-Xpo 2023 was sponsored by VWV and Bristol Innovations.

Identifying predictors for postoperative clinical outcome in lumbar spinal stenosis patients using smart-shoe technology

I'm interested in the smart-shoe technology referred to. A great stroke association would have a protocol to objectively measure all the gait parameters. Until we get to objective measurement of stroke disabilities we will never be able to make any intervention repeatable.  Maybe by these earlier ones:

Sensoria™ Fitness Socks  March 2014

Sensor embedded socks  Jan. 2014

Ambulatory assessment of walking balance after stroke using instrumented shoes

May 2016 

The Parkinson's shoe

 

 

Identifying predictors for postoperative clinical outcome in lumbar spinal stenosis patients using smart-shoe technology

Ambulatory assessment of walking balance after stroke using instrumented shoes

And just when the hell will stroke survivors get a walking protocol? These earlier posts have obviously not done one bit of good getting to useful stroke walking analysis and rehab. With NO stroke leadership following up a stroke strategy it takes decades longer to get something useful for survivors.  With this objective analysis of walking problems maybe we can finally get stroke protocols that address those problems. Rather than the craptastic support I got from one of my PTs, 'Walk this way'.

A Personalized Self-Management Rehabilitation System with an Intelligent Shoe for Stroke Survivors: A Realist Evaluation

What does your doctor think about comparing it to these?

Sensoria™ Fitness Socks

Sensor embedded socks

The Parkinson's shoe

The latest here:

Ambulatory assessment of walking balance after stroke using instrumented shoes 

• Fokke B. van Meulen†Email author,
• Dirk Weenk,
• Jaap H. Buurke,
• Bert-Jan F. van Beijnum and
• Peter H. Veltink

†Contributed equally

Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation201613:48

DOI: 10.1186/s12984-016-0146-5

©  van Meulen et al. 2016

Received: 14 October 2015

Accepted: 13 April 2016

Published: 19 May 2016

Abstract

Background

For optimal guidance of walking rehabilitation therapy of stroke patients in an in-home setting, a small and easy to use wearable system is needed. In this paper we present a new shoe-integrated system that quantifies walking balance during activities of daily living and is not restricted to a lab environment. Quantitative parameters were related to clinically assessed level of balance in order to assess the additional information they provide.

Methods

Data of 13 participants who suffered a stroke were recorded while walking 10 meter trials and wearing special instrumented shoes. The data from 3D force and torque sensors, 3D inertial sensors and ultrasound transducers were fused to estimate 3D (relative) position, velocity, orientation and ground reaction force of each foot. From these estimates, center of mass and base of support were derived together with a dynamic stability margin, which is the (velocity) extrapolated center of mass with respect to the front-line of the base of support in walking direction. Additionally, for each participant step lengths and stance times for both sides as well as asymmetries of these parameters were derived.

Results

Using the proposed shoe-integrated system, a complete reconstruction of the kinematics and kinetics of both feet during walking can be made. Dynamic stability margin and step length symmetry were not significantly correlated with Berg Balance Scale (BBS) score, but participants with a BBS score below 45 showed a small-positive dynamic stability margin and more asymmetrical step lengths. More affected participants, having a lower BBS score, have a lower walking speed, make smaller steps, longer stance times and have more asymmetrical stance times.

Conclusions

The proposed shoe-integrated system and data analysis methods can be used to quantify daily-life walking performance and walking balance, in an ambulatory setting without the use of a lab restricted system. The presented system provides additional insight about the balance mechanism, via parameters describing walking patterns of an individual subject. This information can be used for patient specific and objective evaluation of walking balance and a better guidance of therapies during the rehabilitation.

Trial registration

The study protocol is a subset of a larger protocol and registered in the Netherlands Trial Registry, number NTR3636.