Integrating music, movement and stroke rehabilitation, MedRhythms raises $25M to develop and commercialize digital therapeutic

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MedRhythms rais­es 25m to get patients back in tune after a stroke (TechCrunch):

MedRhythms secured $25 mil­lion in Series B fund­ing to advance its dig­i­tal ther­a­py plat­form aimed at mea­sur­ing and improv­ing someone’s abil­i­ty to walk after they have expe­ri­enced a neu­ro­log­ic injury or dis­ease … Com­pa­ny co-founder and CEO Bri­an Har­ris was a neu­ro­log­ic music fel­low at Spauld­ing Reha­bil­i­ta­tion Hos­pi­tal in Boston, treat­ing peo­ple with stroke and brain deficits with music. He began get­ting ques­tions from patients and fam­i­lies on how they could access sim­i­lar care out­side of the hos­pi­tal. Not see­ing a suit­able alter­na­tive, he start­ed MedRhythms with entre­pre­neur Owen McCarthy in 2016.

“There is no oth­er stim­u­lus that engages the brain like music does,” Har­ris said. “When some­one is engag­ing in music, it aids in neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty to cre­ate new con­nec­tions and strength­en old ones. Neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty is how we can learn new things or why peo­ple with brain deficits can improve.”

The Announcement:

MedRhythms Clos­es $25M Series B Fund­ing Led by Morn­ing­side Ven­tures and Advan­tage Cap­i­tal to Advance Dig­i­tal Ther­a­peu­tics Plat­form (press release):

MedRhythms, a leader in devel­op­ing pre­scrip­tion dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics that use sen­sors, soft­ware, and music to mea­sure and improve walk­ing for patients with a neu­ro­log­ic injury or dis­ease, announced today the clos­ing of a $25 mil­lion Series B financ­ing round co-led by Morn­ing­side Ven­tures and Advan­tage Cap­i­tal, with par­tic­i­pa­tion from exist­ing investor Werth Fam­i­ly Invest­ment Asso­ciates … MedRhythms’ dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tic plat­form is designed to dig­i­tize an evi­dence-based inter­ven­tion known as Rhyth­mic Audi­to­ry Stim­u­la­tion, which uses music to tar­get neur­al cir­cuit­ry that con­trols move­ment. This mech­a­nism is known as “entrain­ment,” a neu­ro­log­ic process in which the audi­to­ry and motor sys­tems of the brain are cou­pled in syn­chrony with an exter­nal rhyth­mic cue. Entrain­ment can, over time, both enhance neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty and lead to improved func­tion­al out­comes in walking…

“MedRhythms has devel­oped a pow­er­ful dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics plat­form found­ed on the premise that tar­get­ing elec­tro­phys­i­o­log­i­cal net­works in the brain can be broad­ly effec­tive against neu­ro­log­ic dis­or­ders,” said Stephen Bru­so of Morn­ing­side Ven­tures … MedRhythms has received Break­through Device des­ig­na­tion from the U.S. Food and Drug Admin­is­tra­tion (FDA) for its patent­ed dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tic to treat chron­ic stroke walk­ing deficits. This prod­uct is the first in the com­pa­ny’s pipeline of dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics for neu­ro­log­ic dis­ease and injury. The impact of the device on chron­ic stroke walk­ing impair­ments are cur­rent­ly being stud­ied in a ran­dom­ized con­trolled tri­al (RCT) at the nation’s top reha­bil­i­ta­tion hos­pi­tals and research cen­ters. The com­pa­ny also has also expand­ed its pipeline into neu­ro­log­i­cal con­di­tions such as Parkinson’s, acute stroke and mul­ti­ple scle­ro­sis, includ­ing a neu­roimag­ing study with Mass­a­chu­setts Gen­er­al Hospital.

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