Welcome to our latest guest post. Today Adrian Davis introduces us to Therapix and new computer aided physiotherapy company. This looks like a really useful tool for people with multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia and similar arthritic conditions.  Indeed he feels it could be useful for almost any neurological condition.

Davis writes:-

“Who We Are: http://www.thera-pix.com

We are a games company, at start-up phase, in Dublin, Ireland, who are devoting our time and energy to developing games, and game controllers to be used in physiotherapy.

There are many reports about how computer aided physiotherapy is between 20 and 40 per cent more effective that traditional methods.

These computer aided systems generally take the form of large expensive systems found in hospitals and clinics.

We are attempting to develop these systems at a fraction of the cost, to deliver the same benefits, and to be used from home.

Why We’re Doing What We’re Doing:

My sister was diagnosed with MS 12 years ago and since then her hands have become worse and worse.

We had an argument because she wasn’t doing the exercises that her physiotherapist had proscribed for her, because she said they were too boring.

My background is in game design, and it got me thinking how I could make the exercises more fulfilling and targeted for her.

I gathered a team of designers, programmers, doctors and physiotherapists and started developing a system of physiotherapy for the hands that was specifically based on game play.

We’ve reached a point in the project where we really need some feedback, to decide whether to continue developing, for everybody with MS, or other neurological disorders – not just my sister.

What We Are Trying To Do:

We are developing a system using a specially designed games controller that can help heal,

or re-route the neural networks of the hands.

We’ve visualized what the controller may look like here

 

The Idea is simply that it is a games controller that is operated using pressure applied in different ways by the hands, to control what is happening in a game.

We are developing games that are to be played using this controller over the internet, from home – or anywhere there’s internet – over a tablet or smart-phone –  have a look at www.adodavis.com/games for a look at some of our previous game work.

What Help We Need:

 We need help in the following ways:

1. We need to find out if the problem we’re trying to solve is a problem for everybody with neurological conditions affecting their hands, or is this a solution that only my sister will use! – The only way to measure this is to get feedback from people in a similar situation. Any feedback at all at this point would be hugely helpful and can take the form of a direct email to me at adodavis@gmail.com, or, ideally, if this is a project you think is worth pursuing, then you would really help by filling in some of the gaps in our knowledge by taking the time to fill out a short form @ http://www.thera-pix.com/research

 

2. If this is a solution you believe is worth pursuing then we would love to talk to you in person! Why? Because I really want to gather a pool of people as passionate about this project as I am to help us build it all the way through!

This would take the form of initial face to face interviews – so, ideally, I’m looking for people in the Dublin / Leinster area – if you are interested you can email me @ adodavis@gmail.com.

Then you would help us in the design and testing phases of both the controller and the games. An example of what help would be really useful would be by measuring hand function before and after the process – to demonstrate the effectiveness of the system.

I think the whole development process will take about 6 months, with requests for help, feedback, testing etc. occurring sporadically.

Once this stage is complete we’ll be moving the project to beta–test phase, where we will have fully working products available for further testing. Testers for this phase of the project can come from anywhere in the UK and Ireland – so If you would like to participate at this point please register your interest here

If you are interested in the project, but don’t want to commit to help at this point – you can keep up to date on what’s happening on http://www.facebook/therapix ltd, which we’ll update regularly to let people know how it’s all progressing.