How ONWARD Medical is Restoring Thought-Driven Movement Post Paralysis
Imagine losing the ability to walk in an instant. That’s what happened to Gert-Jan Oskam in 2011 when he had a biking accident while living in China. “I was living in China was during my work and very excited to go home like two days before I leave home. I was waking up in a hospital,” Oskam recounted.
The accident left him paralyzed, dramatically changing his life. “I did not work anymore. I couldn’t do my job anymore. I just sold my house. Like everything I was building throughout the years, worked hard for the last point,” he said. After returning to the Netherlands for rehabilitation, Oskam reached a plateau, only able to walk 5–10 meters twice weekly. He knew he “needed something, but there was nothing.”
Then, in 2016, Oskam learned about the STIMO studies pioneered by Swiss researchers to restore walking in patients with paralysis. He became one of the first ten patients to receive an implanted neurostimulator device that would replace the brain signals blocked by his spinal cord injury.
The results, published in the prestigious journal Nature, showed that “indeed, people could recover the ability to walk, even those with complete spinal cord injury,” explained Dave Marver, CEO of Onward Medical, the company working to commercialize this therapy. While not yet walking independently, the stimulation allowed Oskam to walk up to 100 meters daily, dramatically more than before.
Oskam’s biggest change has been to his overall health and stamina. After his accident, he could only sit upright for 4 hours at a time before needing to lie down. But with the stimulation, “now I can sit up to 16–20 hours. It’s easy for me now.” This allows him much more freedom in his daily life.
Building on the success of the STIMO studies, Onward Medical is now taking the therapy a step further — combining spinal stimulation with a brain-computer interface (BCI) to allow patients to control their leg movements directly with their thoughts.
In 2021, Oskam became the first person in the world to receive this groundbreaking BCI implant. While still getting used to the system, he sees it as the path to more natural movement. “I believe that also the force scientists tell us, but I also think myself that we need to get closer to the more natural way of working, and it takes some strain for us crazy movers to replacement backs in front of me. So I knew this was an opportunity to get back to the natural way of walking,” he said.
Looking ahead, Onward Medical plans to streamline and make the therapy more accessible. “Eventually, we’d like it to be a fully implanted system with very low latency very fast, so people would trust conclusions much more naturally,” said Marver. The company is also working on therapies to restore hand and arm function for patients with tetraplegia and to normalize blood pressure after spinal cord injuries.
While these implantable therapies may still be years away from widespread availability, Onward is on the cusp of releasing an external stimulation device to help restore hand and arm function. A large clinical trial showed 90% of participants regaining some hand strength and abilities like grasping objects and manipulating zippers and buttons. This device is expected to become available in the US later this year and in Europe in 2024.
For patients like Oskam, having the courage to participate in early trials of these technologies opens doors and provides hope for the paralysis community. “I think the entire community of people with paralysis benefited from Gert-Jan’s courage because we’re learning about improvements we need to make in the system,” said Marver. “He is really helping all of mankind and, in particular, those with spinal cord injury.”
Asked if he had any advice for others with paralysis, Oskam said: “Keep training in the middle. Stay healthy…” While the path to recovery can be long, innovations from companies like Onward Medical provide optimism that restoring lost abilities is becoming increasingly possible. Step by step, thought by thought, science is finding ways to help patients regain control and live fuller lives after paralysis.
A lasting thought: Gert-Jan Oskam is now back at work, rebuilding a life he thought he’d lost.
