FDA approves first VR system for treating brain damage

Rehabilitation after a stroke often takes a long time and has a poor prognosis. However, a new virtual reality device recently received FDA approval to help patients recover better and faster.

This system was developed by the Swiss company MindMaze and has been approved and launched in the European market. This FDA approval will first promote VR to American hospitals for patients with brain nerve damage.

The San Francisco-based company is currently focused on the development of "neuro-rehabilitation" systems. The approved product, MindMotion Pro, uses a 3D motion-tracking camera to coordinate brain function and limb movements.

The system then analyzes this data to provide personalized treatment for each patient, company co-founder and CEO Tej Tadi told Axios.

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The company was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in Lausanne, with branches in Zurich and Romania.

Three years after its establishment, the company has received $8.5 million in angel round financing. Last year, Hinduja, a private bank based in Switzerland by an Indian family group, invested $100 million in it, which brought MindMaze's valuation to $1.1 billion.

This is the fifth VR company to raise over 100 million dollars, and one of the largest rounds of funding for VR rehabilitation.

The biggest feature of this system, which has now been approved by the FDA, is that patients use their arms or fingertips to perform a series of movements through their virtual selves (avatars) in the game. Even if some patients cannot actually perform the operations, they can issue commands to the avatar in their brains, which can activate brain nerves and help recover the damaged brain.

MindMaze's partners include Stanford University and the University of California, San Francisco.

Through mind control and virtual games, it can help activate brain function. Currently, the company will promote it in hospitals, and the price is about $80,000 per set.

The entire medical VR market is expected to reach US$5.1 billion and 3.4 million users by 2025.

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