Spotlight on FRITE@Home!
The objective of the FRITE@Home project, which brings together the partners Axinesis, Arsalis, UCLouvain and HELHa, is to develop a tele-rehabilitation device, the REAtouch Lite, helping children with cerebral palsy and adults suffering from stroke. The purpose is to benefit from a functional and intensive rehabilitation of the HABIT-ILE type at home or in a decentralized manner within a care establishment.
BioWin: What is the current status of the project and what are the next steps/milestones?
Julien Sapin (Axinesis): We are at the very beginning of the project, it officially started in early October 2021.
We are mainly working on the following axes:
- The electromechanical development of the solution based on a product that already exists in our portfolio.
- The IT development of the solution both in terms of hardware and telemedicine.
BioWin: How did the collaboration with the different partners of the consortium go and what was the added value of BioWin?
Julien Sapin (Axinesis): As we are at the very beginning of the project, I can only talk about the set-up of the project in terms of collaboration between the different partners. Everything went very well. This is probably due to the fact that the consortium already knew each other since we had already had the opportunity to collaborate in the past.
The project consortium is composed of experts from the following 4 companies and organizations:
- Axinesis, the project coordinator, is a spin-off of the UCLouvain specialized in technologies dedicated to neuro-rehabilitation
- Arsalis is a spin-off of UCLouvain specialized in the development, promotion and licensing of patient-reported functional assessment tools (PROMs)
- The MSL-IN laboratory of the Institute of Neurosciences of UCLouvain has extensive experience in the design and implementation of clinical studies in patients with brain injuries. The laboratory has developed the HABIT-ILE methodology.
- HELHa has more than 15 years of experience in the development and scientific validation of PROMs and has a good expertise in integrating the therapeutic principles of intensive interventions into virtual reality-based tools.
BioWin’s added value during the development of the application is at different levels:
- The external viewpoint, which is both expert in setting up the file and relatively naive about the subject developed, which results in very constructive exchanges that certainly allow for the improvement of the quality of the file.
- The time management by being a real metronome reminding the deadlines in time.
- The administrative follow-up without which nothing would materialize.
- An easy and present contact, which guided us on various practical points both in the submission of the files and in the implementation of the project.
BioWin: Are you looking for additional collaborations with other partners in the future? Are they local actors within the Walloon ecosystem or also international?
Julien Sapin (Axinesis): We are always open to new meetings and opportunities.
We are currently working hard on our sales force and in particular on finding new commercial partners, especially for the distribution of our products abroad. Our attention is also focused on hospital partnerships to ensure the testing and feedback of our new products.
BioWin: What is your hope for the future?
Julien Sapin (Axinesis): Our vision is to make intensive functional neurorehabilitation accessible to all patients with motor or cognitive disorders, at all stages of their rehabilitation.
Contact:
