Articulate Labs careers

Overview: Articulate Labs designs wearable smart medical devices to enhance a patient’s physical rehabilitation and recovery journey through intelligent, adaptive application of electrical muscle stimulation.

Problem: Poor quadriceps strength is highly correlated with poor post-op outcomes (restored mobility, quality of life) from knee replacement or knee OA rehab. Cost pressures on insurance companies have led to drastically limited number of reimbursed physical therapy sessions for patients. Meanwhile, <30% of patients make it to all prescribed therapy sessions or remain compliant with their home-based regimen due in part to lack of time for self-care. Need exists for unsupervised outpatient rehab options that keep time and money expenditure low for patient and provider without sacrificing outcomes.

Solution: AL's first product, KneeStim, is a light, comfortable, form-fitting device that uses neuromuscular electrical stimulation to conveniently strengthen and re-educate quadriceps muscles in sync with regular activity, turning each step into a muscle-building repetition. Personalization occurs through use of motion-tracking hardware, machine learning, and AL’s patented joint modeling system. Collected data is used to optimize rehab and to avoid poor outcomes.

Differentiation: Competitors’ devices do not adapt to or leverage movement to create a more effective application of NMES and can only be used while stationary or during basic exercises, creating inconvenience and lowering compliance.

IP: Four U.S. patents granted covering use of joint/force model to drive stimulation timing and location across all joints and conditions; one pending in EPO; multiple applications pending

Proof of Concept: Research at UT-Austin showed KneeStim working prototypes to be 99% accurate on stride detection, 100% accurate on muscle band contraction on individuals with patellofemoral pain; data shared at 2018 American College of Rehabilitation Medicine conference