Stroke therapy gets high tech treatment

Marcus King received an award for designing Able-X, a device which allows stroke victims to play simple video games using an 'air mouse'. Photo / Dean Purcell

The Kiwi developers of a device that gives fresh hope to stroke and brain injury survivors have big plans for their product's entrance into the lucrative export market.

And it's no wonder, with the global medical technology industry now worth more than $400 billion annually, and growing by 6 to 7 per cent each year, according to the Medical Technology Association of New Zealand.

Able-X - the brainchild of Industrial Research engineer Marcus King - allows stroke victims to play simple video games using an "air mouse"attached to a handlebar, which is wirelessly connected to a computer.

Users make repetitive movements while playing the games, which re-teach their brains to work in conjunction with their bodies after a stroke or brain injury.

King, who received a Royal Society of New Zealand award for his work in rehabilitation science last week, said Able-X gave hope to stroke victims who had been "given up on" by traditional medicine.

"We're getting significant movement benefits from many of the people who took part in the trials," he said.

Following the trials, which included those carried out at a Hutt Valley resthome, Able-X entered the New Zealand market a month ago.

Sunil Vather, chief executive of Lower Hutt's Im-Able, which commercialised the technology developed by King and his team at Industrial Research, said more than 30 units had already been sold. The device and software sell for $850 plus GST.

Kris Nicholson, of Christchurch's Stickmen Studios which developed the Able-X games, said the biggest challenge had been making them simple enough for stroke victims, who were usually elderly, to use.

Vather said Im-Able had been licensed by Industrial Research to market and distribute the device in New Zealand, as well as internationally, where it would target Australia, Britain and North America.

Those markets combined had the potential for sales of $150 million annually, he said.

Vather said a rapidly ageing population in the device's target markets would only increase demand.

Im-Able was working towards gaining medical device approval for the Able-X from the United States Food and Drug Administration, Vather said, as well as CE approval - a quality and safety assurance mark in Europe.

Those processes would take four months and until then the product would be classified as a "research tool" for sale in Britain and the US.

Medical Technology Association of New Zealand chief executive Faye Sumner said Kiwi firms that successfully commercialised their medical devices faced huge challenges when it came to marketing them globally.

"For every dollar they have spent on research and development, it's going to cost them five to six times that to sell the product," she said.

"That's where [New Zealand firms] fail so much - to actually understand that commercial market."

She said products such as Able-X, which filled a gap in patient need, had huge potential for success in the international marketplace.