Evolv participated in Medica 2018 in Dusseldorf, Germany, the leading international trade fair for the medical sector and where over 120 -thousand visitors attend the 4-day event. This is the first year Evolv participated in Medica after having spun-off from Virtualware, under whose name it exhibited as for several years.
Having our stand located in Hall 4, where all companies specialising in rehabilitation products are located, made it a very busy 4 days. What remained the same from previous years was the great number of companies from around the globe that dropped by our stand interested in distributing VirtualRehab, our CE certified neurorehabilitation platform that combines virtual reality and motion capture systems.
Medica is the ideal place to be in contact with potential distributors, but also a place to catch up with existing distributors, and that’s just what we did. Several of our distributors dropped by our stand, including Health Link from Hong Kong, TIMIK from Norway and Leader Health from the United Arab Emirates. We got a chance to show them some new things that we’ve been working on and discuss new product launches for the next year.
We were constantly demonstrating the latest version of VirtualRehab Body and Hands to the many visitors to our stand, including the newest features in Body and Hands, as well as our ongoing work in Fall Prevention and on Motor and Language Training (MaLT). We even gave a sneak preview of some new hardware we’re working on in assistive technologies space.
Our multifaceted approach to developing tech solutions for different stages and types of therapy in the rehabilitation care pathway caught a lot of people’s attention, including the therapists that visited our stand.
Evolv also gave a taster of what’s to come with our use of Virtual Reality technology for cognitive therapy, with a clear focus on helping to improve the training of Executive Functions. Most of the visitors to our stand wanted to give our VR cognitive app using the HTC Vive a try and were impressed by the imersiveness of the experience and its simplicity to use. We’re looking forward to 2019 when we’ll be launching VR apps as part of the VirtualRehab platform.
After Medica, we can now confidently say that gaming is now a mainstream part of most rehabilitation technology manufacturers’ products. Engaging patients undergoing different types of rehabilitation is always challenging, and the use of gamification provides a way to do so.
We were excited to show our ongoing collaboration with TOGU, the German therapy and fitness equipment manufacturer. We had several pieces of equipment from TOGU including balance boards, weights and seat cushions that work seamlessly with VirtualRehab. 2019 will see more collaborations between our 2 companies and our goal to integrate standard therapy equipment into VirtualRehab.
Being at Medica also gives us a chance to participate in the annual meeting of the Industry Society in Advanced Rehabilitation Technology (IISART) where some of the most important rehab tech companies are members. The agenda of IISART is to promote the use of different technologies for neurorehabilitation and to begin to put in place industry-wide standards. During the meeting the members discussed several challenges facing the industry, looked at new opportunities to promote rehab technologies and looked at IISART’s promotion of RehabWeek, which will take place in Toronto, Canada in June of 2019. Evolv will of course be present. Medica 2018 was undoubtedly a huge success for Evolv and we’re already looking forward to 2019 where we’ll be back with even more new rehabilitation technology products.