On March 2, the research team of Dr. Shin Joon-ho of the National Rehabilitation Center announced its publication of an article in the most recent issue of the Journal of Neuro Engineering and Rehabilitation . The article presents research conducted by the team supporting the statistical significance of utilizing virtual reality-based rehabilitative treatment in a clinical setting. The rehabilitative treatment studied by Dr. Shin’s team was based on the “Rapael Smart Glove,” a wearable device made by the Korean company Neofect for rehabilitative training purposes.

Neofect (CEO: Hoyoung Ban) is a smart rehabilitative care start-up company that was founded in 2010. Its primary business is rehabilitative training solutions that can be used consistently over extended periods of time by neurological and musculoskeletal patients (e.g. those suffering from cerebrovascular diseases, shoulder discomfort, etc.). Neofect products are unique in that they provide clinically-backed, rehabilitative training programs in an entertaining game format that can be customized to meet each patient’s individual needs. 

Neofect develops and produces both the hardware and software used in its rehabilitative training solutions. One of the company’s representative hardware products is the Rapael Smart Glove, which is an ergonomically-designed glove made out of silicon that is both light and easy to use. Featuring IMU and bending sensors, the glove is fully equipped with motion capture and movement and angle measuring capabilities.

Patients wear the glove to, under therapist guidance, play rehabilitative training games that are optimized to the patient’s condition and utilize artificial intelligence technology. Games use rehabilitative learning algorithms to provide accumulated feedback so that the game can be adapted to meet each patient’s changing medical needs. Currently, Neofect has developed a total of 40 rehabilitative games and is planning on gradually increasing its number of available game types.

Neofect is now in the process of developing a system that saves each patient’s rehabilitative training data to a cloud, making it possible to share data among medical staff for more effective patient management. Supported in part by the Gyeonggi Center for Creative Economy & Innovation, Neofect is also quickly moving forward on plans to expand overseas and has already established a US subsidiary in San Francisco in October 2015.

Neofect rehabilitative training solutions are currently in use at 10 medical institutions in Korea and worldwide including: the National Rehabilitation Center, Seoul National University Hospital, Bundang Jesaeng Hospital, Dankook University Hospital, SMG-SNU Boramae Medical Center, and Hallym University Hangang Sacred Heart Hospital in Korea and the Casa Colina Hospital in Pomona, California in the USA. A Neofect spokesperson commented on the company’s business endeavors saying, “Neofect is currently centered on B2B operations, but is also actively involved in B2C marketing.”

jshwang@heraldcorp.com