Parkinson's disease - Getting trembling hands under control

22 million people worldwide suffer from violent, involuntary tremors in their arms. This makes it difficult for people with Parkinson's disease to perform everyday tasks such as eating and drinking. This problem is increasing with the aging population. Driven by the goal of finding an effective and satisfactory treatment method for people with Parkinson's or Essential Tremor, IJsbrand de Lange, after studying biomechanical engineering, founded STIL B.V. in the Netherlands. He searched for methods and techniques to suppress tremors and stabilize the arm, and developed a wrist brace that suppresses tremor through "anti-vibration."

Necessary scientific evidence is a lengthy and costly factor in the development of medical devices. With this in mind, De Lange approached the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (NEA) - a partner in the Enterprise Europe Network - to find out about possible support for the (further) development and financing of his product. He learned that Eureka Eurostars funding could support his development plans. In collaboration with the Fraunhofer   Institute (IBMT), which has expertise in tremor suppression technology and hardware development, a project proposal was prepared and other European partners were sought for project participation.

With a short description of the planned project, the existing expertise as well as the requirements sought, an inquiry was started via the  Healthcare Sector Group and the Technology Database of the Enterprise Europe Network .

As a result, Bayern Innovativ, also a partner in the Enterprise Europe Network, was able to place the Bavarian company senetics healthcare group GmbH&Co.KG, a development and consulting company (SME) in the fields of R & D, medical technology, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. The Swiss university FHNW completes the consortium today. After the grant was approved, the project "Supressing Tremor to a Bearable Level" (STABLE) started in early 2020. Within this project, senetics is responsible for the development of the energy management system (EMS). The EMS will both power the various device components and help manage energy resources between these components. The battery system has successfully passed initial tests at senetics and will enter its first integration test with another wrist support component being developed in parallel by STIL B.V. as early as this year. As a second task, senetics will develop a test setup in which the finished device will undergo safety tests before it can enter preclinical testing.