[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunseok Yoo] Since the government implemented the ‘Regulatory Sandbox’ system, Neofect has been selected as the first case of a demonstration exemption in the home rehabilitation field. The Regulatory Sandbox is a system where the government exempts or postpones existing regulations for companies pursuing new businesses to accelerate business progress.
On the 25th, Neofect, a specialized innovative medical solutions company, announced that it passed the Regulatory Sandbox demonstration exemption for the ‘Home Rehabilitation Training Device and Service’ applied to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.
As a result, Neofect can now conduct a pilot remote rehabilitation medical service business domestically. Neofect is the first and only company to receive a demonstration exemption in the domestic home rehabilitation field.
The demonstration project period is about two years, involving rehabilitation medicine doctors and physical and occupational therapists from university hospitals, children’s rehabilitation hospitals, rehabilitation, and nursing hospitals. Patients with difficulty moving due to stroke, spinal cord injury, or cerebral palsy will undergo remote rehabilitation training after initial diagnosis and prescription at the hospital. Through this, user satisfaction, training adherence, side effects, and training effectiveness will be verified.
Neofect’s AI (Artificial Intelligence)-based home rehabilitation platform recommends rehabilitation training optimized for the patient’s condition. Patients perform rehabilitation training at home on their own through recommended exercises such as joint movement or cognitive function improvement exercises. Physical and occupational therapists monitor training data at the hospital and guide patients regularly via video calls.
Neofect’s products are currently used in more than 215 rehabilitation medicine hospitals and clinics nationwide, and since remote rehabilitation services are provided in cooperation with client hospitals and clinics, patient usage is expected to increase rapidly.
When rehabilitation training becomes possible at home, patients can continue rehabilitation training freely at their desired time without visiting hospitals or rehabilitation centers. This especially expands training accessibility for elderly and mobility-impaired patients. According to a report by the Health and Medical Research Institute, about 85.9% of patients have never received rehabilitation treatment due to reasons such as transportation costs, outpatient time, and physical mobility difficulties.
Ban Hoyoung, CEO of Neofect, said, “Intensive rehabilitation training is essential to recover physical functions after a stroke, but patients who have difficulty moving and find it hard to visit hospitals can now conduct effective rehabilitation training at home. We will create a convenient rehabilitation treatment environment.” He added, “Like overseas cases actively adopting telemedicine, we hope that treatment convenience will be further expanded and medical blind spots will be resolved through gradual and partial application domestically.”
Meanwhile, Neofect is implementing full-scale telemedicine for all patients at the medical clinic ‘Community Rehab Care’ operating in Massachusetts, USA. The Massachusetts state government decided to provide funding so that TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) patients can use Neofect’s rehabilitation medical devices and home rehabilitation solutions free of charge after COVID-19.
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