The West Health Investment Fund, which is a part of the West Health Institute, announced a $4.25 million investment into Reflexion Health, a startup that recently spun out of the institute. Reflexion plans to offer a physical therapy digital health program that leverages Microsoft Kinect for Windows. The West Health Institute developed the software and Reflexion is licensing it.
Like the first startup to spin out of West, Sense4Baby, Reflexion won't be going too far -- physically, anyway -- it is still based onsite at the institute's La Jolla, California headquarters since it is a part of West's recently announced incubator.
Reflexion's motion tracking system, called Rehabilitation Measurement Tool (RMT), uses a personal computer running Kinect to provide interactive feedback and educational materials based on the patient's progress with their physical therapy. The aim is to help physical therapists and physicians to more easily track a patient's rehab progress but the longterm goal is to improve patient adherence to a prescribed PT program, too.
“Reflexion Health is demonstrating that engaging medical software can become a powerful tool for clinicians to help patients, just like prescription drugs or traditional medical devices,” Spencer Hutchins, co-founder and CEO of Reflexion Health stated in the announcement. “This substantial investment will help Reflexion Health build its world-class team, accelerate product development and conduct clinical trials with the system.”
Hutchins previously worked at The West Health Institute and prior to that served on the healthcare team at the FCC that helped draft a healthcare chapter of its National Broadband Plan. His FCC colleagues Dr. Mohit Kaushal and Kerry McDermott also joined the West Health Institute not too long after the publication of the FCC's National Broadband Plan in 2010. Kaushal now heads the West Health Investment Fund and McDermott is a senior director of policy at the West Health Policy Center in Washington DC. In recent weeks the FCC has announced plans to rehire healthcare talent to help it better navigate digital health.
More on Reflexion in this video.
