Movia Robotics Launches Its TheraPal Digital Health Aide with FDA Registration

Movia Robotics has launched TheraPal Progress Tracker, TheraPal Home, and TheraPal Clinical Assist Aides for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and other Intellectual or Developmental Disabilities (IDD).

These products were registered on October 9, 2021, with the FDA to support health care professionals in enhancing patient care. MOVIA is a Connecticut-based collaborative robotics company that builds systems and software to engage both neuro-diverse and neuro-typical children, as well as adults to aid in developing learning and collaboration skills.

MOVIA’s TheraPal Progress Tracker, TheraPal Home and TheraPal Clinical Assist Aides will be the first of their kind to the market, further cementing MOVIA’s mission, innovation, and dedication as an industry leader.  By registering with the FDA, MOVIA’s commitment to digital health will bring them a step closer in aiding more families with diverse economic and developmental needs, as well as put MOVIA on the path to serve more children, families and health care professionals.

With their commitment to digital health, MOVIA’s goal is to bring their TheraPal Home and TheraPal Clinical Assist Aides into homes and clinicians’ offices to be used by parents, therapists and other health professionals for the development and learning of exceptional individuals with neurodevelopmental or intellectual challenges. In today’s digital era, where many with special needs are often underrepresented, MOVIA is closing the digital divide by providing interventions, information, and insight into the ecosystem of individuals with developmental delays. MOVIA’s Robot-Assisted Intervention (RAI) provides a friendly and effective digital tool, leveraging Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) and other evidence-based methods along with gamification techniques, that allows children and older individuals to practice a large variety of life skills and confidence building activities to support their social and emotional development.

“We are focused on showing how robotics can improve the lives of individuals with autism and other special needs, and the launch of our TheraPal is the first step in our commitment to FDA digital health certification,” says MOVIA Robotics CEO, Jean-Pierre Bolat.

MOVIA’s fully configurable system offers well-designed modules for cognitive training, communication training and practice, and educational learning, as well as provides data for health care professionals to help in decision-making and to adjust professional therapies accordingly.  The RAI assists the individual in understanding and practicing basic social skills such as making eye contact, building confidence, engaging in conversation, as well as with intellectual skills like reading comprehension, basic math and auditory processing learning.  MOVIA’s RAI also enables cognitive learning by playing games and activities focused on categories such as personal hygiene, physical activities, and nutrition.

The TheraPal product line, powered by MOVIA’s proprietary software, assists neuro-diverse children with their Individualized Treatment Plan goals while providing metrics for assessment in every module. The TheraPal Progress Tracker is a medical device data system that is utilized as an assist tool for both the homecare individuals (including educators, consumer caregivers and parents) and clinicians to collect data during sessions with the robots to be used by therapists and other clinicians to monitor and assess an individual’s progress. The collected data will be used for visualization and information purposes. With metrics on assessment objectives including verbalization, interpersonal coordination, reaction time, and gross or fine motor skills, MOVIA’s TheraPal provides assessments of an individual’s progress, free of social judgement, human error, or bias. The TheraPal Progress Tracker’s launch introduces a medical device into the child’s ecosystem that empowers clinicians and caregivers to integrate and better assess data about a child’s progress.

MOVIA’s RAI can positively help children to grow up happy, healthy, and to live a fulfilling and well-established social life. By taking measures and monitoring progress to address the child’s needs, and by giving them well-rounded developmental experiences, MOVIA can accelerate a child’s success along their unique path. Early intervention is important to change the trajectory of a child’s development. These techniques are also effective when used later in life with neurodiverse adults.