"The product must be 100% user-centered"

Samuel Knobel, how does your project plan to impact current processes?
Imagine having difficulty using your hands in everyday life after a stroke or due to a neurological disorder. Tying shoelaces, turning keys, or even holding a cup can become real challenges and make independent living nearly impossible. Currently, there is insufficient rehabilitation capacity for people with impaired fine motor skills. Demographic change and a shortage of skilled workers are exacerbating this situation.
Our goal is to enable patients with impaired fine motor skills to receive a higher dose of therapy. Together with therapists, we have developed a small, egg-shaped training device: the DextEgg. Together with a tablet-based app, the patient can perform video-guided exercises or gamified trainings. The key is that the sensors inside the DextEgg measure the movements of the patients’ hands during their exercises and games, so we can provide them direct feedback.
At the moment, therapists use the DextEgg system in the hospital with patient, this means the patients get to know it first inside the clinics, experience the benefit of continuous training with the DextEgg and then continue to use it at home.
Our solution is not meant to replace therapist or claims to be better than conventional therapy. We just want to make the training at home more entertaining, so the adherence is higher, because without adherence the best training is worthless.

What motivates you?
I originally studied medicine with the aim of improving people's lives. While being a doctor was rewarding, the working conditions were challenging. So, I pursued a different approach that also took my technical affinity into account. Studying biomedical engineering was thus the logical consequence and the University of Bern has a good program in this field. Even after the Master’s Degree and the PhD, when I was working in industry, having a strong purpose was always important to me. Creating and maintaining quality of life is what drives me.
In industry, change is very slow. In my current project, we are smaller and much more agile. In three months, I have already achieved as much as I otherwise would have in a year. The progress and continuous feedback from the therapists we work with are encouraging.

What is the status of your innovation?
We have a very robust prototype that is being used in pilot projects at seven clinics. Its feasibility has been validated in various studies and will be tested again at the end of the year with neurological patients and then in children with ADHD.
We are currently improving our hardware with the help of the Lausanne-based company Immensiv to be ready for mass production. Those improvements integrated medically certified components and a new more robust firmware. On the software side, we also have a robust prototype that is being tested at Inselspital and Vitrea Clinics and will be further developed over the course of the next year.
Our goal is to have a non-medical CE-certified product by the middle of next year and then a Class 1 medical CE certification in 2028.

How is the UniBE Venture Fellowship supporting you in this journey?
Without the Venture Fellowship, I wouldn't be here. I wouldn't have the opportunity to do this for a year without funding. Although I have some industry experience, I really appreciate the decades of experience of my mentor. He helps us get on track for the real world, which is very different from a pure research project. Furthermore, we profit from the networking events between peers, to share and help with similar problems. And, last but not least, thanks to the photoshoot we got some new product pictures which we could use for our LinkedIn as well as some nice team pictures.
Fundamentally, this is a high-risk investment for the university. Rehabilitation has a rather low margin and often long sale cycles, which makes it less attractive to investors. Through the fellowship, we are getting the opportunity to establish contracts and gain market experience without being pressured to generate revenue. Additionally, it enables us to pilot the digital biomarkers, which are highly popular nowadays. These digital endpoints are attractive to the pharma industry because they are inexpensive and allow for continuous measurements.

What has your path so far taught you?
Just do it – don't be afraid! In most cases, the “worst case” scenario is not as bad as feared. Also, don't hesitate to ask for help. Most people are happy to help and share. That is one of the great strengths of the ecosystem we have here. If you ask, you will receive a wealth of knowledge, tools, and practical experience on how to solve a problem that has already been solved before. So: talk a lot in your peer group. The second important point is that we strongly believe the product must be 100% user centered. As engineers or researchers, the idea might be great, but is it relevant and great for patients?
Our idea arose from a Covid project. Back then, patients asked Tim Vanbellingen (our advisor) in Lucerne, “What can I do at home? – I can no longer see my therapist.” He approached Tobias Nef, our group head at the ARTORG Center, with this question. With the dissertation of my co-founder Nic Krummenacher, we developed a solution based on the question: “How can we meet the patient need to keep it simple?” No over-engineering but always keeping the user in mind.
In our Gerontechnology and Rehabilitation Lab, we are supported by both Tobias Nef and Tim Vanbellingen. I am deeply grateful that we have the opportunity to try this out here. It's great that the Venture Fellowship Committee believed in us too!