The Pulse, Feb 2019
The Pulse — Improving Parkinson’s Care.
It’s been a while since we have given an update but don’t worry! MedEngine is braving Berlin’s perilous winter and is still on track for making a real impact on Parkinson’s care.
The excitement of building a product that can genuinely improve people’s lives has really driven the team at MedEngine. There’s an energy and a will to do good. Being a small team, we complete projects rapidly but to know that we’re headed in the right direction, it’s important to pull away from the work and reflect on what we have achieved and what’s next on our journey towards improving Parkinson’s care through technology.
So what have we been up to at MedEngine?
Connecting with PD Community 🧠 💙
After numerous video calls, emails and in-person meetings, we feel like our picture of the Parkinson’s ecosystem now gained a bit more detail and colour. It has been awesome hearing each person’s experience with PD. From symptoms through to lifestyles, it is clear that this disease varies greatly from person to person and this further validates the need for a more personalised model of Parkinson’s care, one that is patient-centric.
If you’re willing to share your experience of living with Parkinson’s Disease with us, drop us an email. We’d love to speak with you!😊
— contact@medengine.co —
Beta Testing 👩💻📝
Back in September, we set out to test the first version of our app. We were in search of validation of what we had built. So it made sense for us to run a small, closed beta test to find out what bits we can keep and what bits are unwanted or unnecessary. We were amazed at how many people signed up to help us with testing and product development. We received very detailed, high-quality feedback on what we can do to ensure Flytta works better for people with Parkinson’s.
To avoid being overwhelmed, we gradually rolled out the app in separate cohorts so that we could manage responses, fix bugs effectively and make changes iteratively. After our third cohort, we decided to take a moment to step back and reflect.
What we learned… 👨🏫
Gradually, it became clear to us that we ought to dig deeper and conduct more thorough research into life with Parkinson’s Disease. The app offered good functionality but poor design and the result was a bit of dissonance between what people needed and how we had built our product. We came to the conclusion that we needed to gain a more holistic insight into everyday life with Parkinson’s.
From this realisation emerged the need for a product designer. Someone who knows how to get a better sense of what life is like for people with Parkinson’s disease and translate those insights into a useful and validated product that creates value for those who use it.
We’re sitting close to 300 people on our waiting list for the Flytta app and it’s growing by the day! 😱 Keen to get on the waiting list? You can sign up here.
Oh! and those of you who weren’t selected for the initial closed beta, don’t worry. We have transferred you over already! 😇
Upgrading our tech 💪
We are committed to providing accurate and actionable analysis for our users so we made the decision to invest in our very own VICON motion capture lab!
What’s that?! 🤔
“Academy Award®-winning Vicon specializes in developing accessible motion capture technology that delivers the most precise, reliable data in any movement analysis application.”
This technology means that we can run motion testing in-house with people with Parkinson’s to improve the accuracy of our watch as it measures your movements and motion over time. Not bad, huh!? 😎
On top of that, it will allow us to gain a better, more data-driven understanding of other movement symptoms related to Parkinson’s. You can imagine that we’re pretty excited about it!
Team Growing 🚀
2018 saw MedEngine more than double in size growing from 3 to 8 employees and the best part is… We’re still growing! At the end of the year, we secured funding from the IBB to allow us to continue growing the team and building our technology. You can find out more about the scheme here.
Wait! A motion capture lab and a growing team in that office?!
Not possible, so yes, we began the search for a larger space and, well, we might have found something… 🙏
If you fancy making a meaningful impact on Parkinson’s care, you’ll find our opportunities here or send us your reasons for why you’d like to be part of the MedEngine team to careers@medengine.co
CE Marking 🔬
A crucial part of building a medical device is ensuring it is safe for use. To that point, we have embarked on the process of CE marking our product to make sure we meet health and safety standards and conform to all regulations. Safety first!
Once we’ve got the certification, we will then be in a place to put a final version of Flytta on the market! In the meanwhile, we will continue to provide updates on Flytta’s development from time to time and don’t forget to…
Sign up for the waiting list!
Want to find out more?
Why not visit our website or reach out to us on social media?
