Peer-reviewed research
The evidence behind our devices
This page brings together the published research behind our products, including the papers, outcome measures, study populations, and findings. Trials in progress are not included here.The published research behind our products — the papers, outcome measures, study populations, and findings. Trials in progress are not included.
FDA listed
Class I exempt devices, registered establishment
Class I exempt, registered establishment
8 publications
Peer-reviewed, including 4 randomized trials
Including 4 randomized trials
400+ hospitals
Inpatient rehab, SNF, and outpatient use
Inpatient rehab, SNF, outpatient
Therapist designed
Built with PTs, OTs, and SLPs
Built with PTs, OTs, and SLPs
The short version
What the research shows, in plain English
You shouldn't have to read a journal article to know whether something is worth your time. Here is what each study found, what it means for daily practice, and what it doesn't prove.You shouldn't have to read a journal article to know whether something is worth your time. Here is what each study found, and what it doesn't prove.
Arm & shoulder movement
FitMi
Nearly 3× faster
recovery than traditional therapy alone
In a randomized trial, people recovering from a recent stroke used FitMi at home for three weeks. Their arm movement scores improved 8.0 points, against 3.0 points for the comparison group doing conventional home exercises — close to three times the gain, in three weeks of home practice.
In a randomized trial, people recovering from a recent stroke used FitMi at home for three weeks. Their arm movement scores improved 8.0 points, against 3.0 points for the comparison group doing conventional home exercises.
Studied in the first months after stroke, in 27 people. It hasn’t been tested this way years after a stroke.
Hand & finger use
MusicGlove
Under 2 weeks
to measurable hand gains with about six hours of use in total
In a controlled study, two weeks of MusicGlove improved how well people picked up and moved small objects, while the same amount of ordinary tabletop hand exercise produced no gain. At home, users averaged 466 hand squeezes a day which was far more practice than a handout produces. Users also reported using the affected hand more.
In a controlled study, two weeks of MusicGlove improved how well people picked up and moved small objects, while the same amount of ordinary tabletop exercise produced no gain. At home, users averaged 466 hand squeezes a day.
On the main dexterity test at home, MusicGlove was no better than conventional exercise. Its proven strength is practice volume and everyday hand use.
Speech, language & thinking
CT Speech & Cognitive App
+6.4
points higher on a standard language test than paper workbooks
Adults with long-term aphasia practised at home for ten weeks. The app group finished with meaningfully better language scores, plus gains in word-finding and quality of life.
Adults with long-term aphasia practised at home for ten weeks. The app group finished with meaningfully better language scores, plus gains in word-finding and quality of life.
Benefit tracks with how often you practise — roughly five days a week in the studies. Occasional use hasn’t been shown to work.
One thing every study agrees on: these tools work best alongside a therapist, not instead of one. In each trial, participants were following a plan of care — the device is what makes the practice between appointments actually happen.One thing every study agrees on: these tools work best alongside a therapist, not instead of one. The device is what makes the practice between appointments actually happen.
All 12 publications
Every published study behind our devices, plus independent research on home-delivered rehab.
FitMi
Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair · 2023 · n=27
Optimized home rehabilitation technology reduces upper extremity impairment compared to a conventional home exercise program
Swanson VA, Johnson C, Zondervan DK, et al. 2023;37(1):53–65.
People recovering from a recent stroke used FitMi at home for three weeks. Their arm movement improved close to three times as much as people doing the same exercises from a printed handout — and the difference was large enough that it is unlikely to be chance. It did not make stiffness or pain worse.
In subacute stroke, the FitMi group improved 8.0 ± 4.6 points on the Upper Extremity Fugl–Meyer scale versus 3.0 ± 6.1 points for a content-matched paper home exercise program (p = 0.029) — a large effect. No increase in spasticity or pain, and no device-related serious adverse events.
Design
RCT, single-blind
Outcome measure
Upper Extremity Fugl–Meyer
MusicGlove
J Rehabil Res Dev · 2016 · n=17
Home-based hand rehabilitation after chronic stroke: randomized, controlled single-blind trial comparing the MusicGlove with a conventional exercise program
Zondervan DK, Chang E, et al. 2016;53(4):457–472.
People years past a stroke used MusicGlove at home and averaged 466 hand squeezes a day — far more practice than a handout produces. On the main dexterity test they did not do better than the comparison group. Where they did do better was everyday use: they reported using the affected hand more, and moving it more easily.
Over three weeks of self-guided home use the MusicGlove group averaged 466 gripping movements per day. The primary Box and Blocks endpoint showed no significant between-group difference (+2.3 ± 6.2 vs. +4.3 ± 5.0 blocks), but MusicGlove produced significantly greater gains in Motor Activity Log quality of movement (p = 0.007) and amount of use (p = 0.04) at one month.
Design
RCT, single-blind
Outcome measure
Box & Blocks (primary); MAL QOM/AOU
MusicGlove
J NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation · 2014 · n=12
Retraining and assessing hand movement after stroke using the MusicGlove: comparison with conventional hand therapy and isometric grip training
Friedman N, Chan V, Reinkensmeyer DJ, et al. 2014;11:76.
In a controlled setting, the same people tried MusicGlove, isometric grip training, and ordinary tabletop hand exercises for two weeks each. Only MusicGlove produced a measurable gain in picking up and moving small objects; the tabletop exercises produced none.
In a within-subject crossover of three 2-week blocks, Box and Blocks improved more after MusicGlove than after conventional tabletop training (3.21 ± 3.82 vs. −0.29 ± 2.27 blocks; p = 0.010), with the same pattern on the 9-Hole Peg Test (2.14 ± 2.98 vs. −0.85 ± 1.29 pegs/min; p = 0.005).
Design
Randomized crossover
Outcome measure
Box & Blocks; 9-Hole Peg Test
MusicGlove
Spinal Cord · 2022 · feasibility
Feasibility of home hand rehabilitation using MusicGlove in individuals with chronic spinal cord injury
Sanders Q, et al. Spinal Cord. 2022.
People with a long-standing spinal cord injury were able to use MusicGlove at home, and did roughly twice as many hand repetitions a day as without it. This study asked whether it was practical — not whether it works better than something else.
Home use was feasible in chronic spinal cord injury, with participants completing nearly twice as many gripping movements per day as control or baseline measures. This study supports feasibility and dose — not a direct efficacy comparison.
Design
Feasibility
Outcome measure
Repetitions per day
CT Speech
Frontiers in Neurology · 2021 · n=32
A virtual, randomized, control trial of a digital therapeutic for speech, language, and cognitive intervention in post-stroke persons with aphasia
Braley M, Sims Pierce J, Saxena S, et al. 2021;12:626780.
Adults with long-term aphasia who had finished speech therapy practised at home for ten weeks — either on the app or with paper workbooks. The app group’s language scores ended up about six points higher, which is enough to notice in daily life. Word-finding and quality of life improved too.
Adults with chronic post-stroke aphasia, no longer receiving in-person therapy, practised at home for ten weeks. Adjusted for age and time since stroke, the Constant Therapy group scored 6.43 points higher on the Western Aphasia Battery Aphasia Quotient than workbook controls — above the commonly cited threshold for clinically meaningful change. Verbal fluency and quality-of-life domains also improved.
Design
Virtual RCT
Outcome measure
WAB Aphasia Quotient
CT Speech
Frontiers in Digital Health · 2023 · large cohort
Consistent long-term practice leads to consistent improvement: benefits of self-managed therapy for language and cognitive deficits using a digital therapeutic
Liu H, Cordella C, Ishwar P, Betke M, Kiran S. 2023;5:1095110.
Looking at how thousands of real people actually used the app: the more often someone practised, the more they improved, in both accuracy and speed. This is a pattern in real-world data rather than a controlled trial — but the pattern is consistent.
A retrospective analysis of real-world platform data found higher total and more frequent practice strongly associated with greater gains in accuracy and response time across exercises, with improvement spanning attention, memory, and arithmetic.
Design
Retrospective cohort
Outcome measure
Accuracy; response time
CT Speech
Frontiers in Neurology · 2019 · n=3,686
Comparison of therapy practice at home and in the clinic: a retrospective analysis of the Constant Therapy platform data set
Godlove J, Anantha V, Advani M, Des Roches C, Kiran S. 2019;10:140.
Across 3,686 people with aphasia, practising at home worked about as well per session as practising in a clinic. The difference was frequency: people at home practised more often, so they reached the same level in about half the time — six days instead of twelve.
Across 3,686 people with post-stroke aphasia, home and clinic users starting below 60% accuracy both reached over 90% accuracy in a similar number of sessions (median three). Home users practised more often and mastered tasks in about half the calendar time (median 6 vs. 12 days; p < 0.001).
Design
Retrospective cohort
Outcome measure
Task accuracy; days to mastery
CT Speech
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience · 2015
Effectiveness of an impairment-based individualized rehabilitation program using an iPad-based software platform
Des Roches CA, Balachandran I, Ascenso E, Tripodis Y, Kiran S. 2015;8:1015.
Early work showing that a tablet program tailored to a person’s specific difficulties can produce real gains in language and thinking skills. It set up the way the app adapts difficulty and tracks progress today.
Early foundational work showing that an impairment-based, individualized, tablet-delivered program produces meaningful gains in language and cognitive performance in aphasia — and defining the difficulty-adaptation and progress-tracking workflows the platform still uses.
Design
Cohort
Outcome measure
Language & cognitive performance
Remote rehab
Systematic review · stroke & cognitive telerehab
Telerehabilitation is not inferior to in-clinic therapy when the dose is matched
Independent third-party research. Full citations in the evidence packet.
Reviewers pooled trials that compared therapy delivered at home with the same therapy delivered in a clinic. When people did the same amount of practice, at the same intensity, for the same length of time, the results were about the same. The setting mattered less than the dose.
A stroke information-and-communication-technology review and a systematic review of cognitive telerehabilitation both report non-inferiority to in-clinic care at matched intensity, duration, and frequency. The matched-dose qualifier is load-bearing and must not be dropped when the finding is cited.
Design
Systematic review
Outcome measure
Function & cognition (pooled)
Remote rehab
Feasibility trial · stroke telerehab
People stick with rehabilitation at home
Independent third-party research. Full citations in the evidence packet.
In a stroke telerehab trial, participants completed almost every session they were asked to, nearly all of them finished the program, and they rated the experience highly. Technology problems came up rarely.
Adherence reached 99.6% with 95% retention and mean acceptability of 4.4 / 5; digital barriers were infrequent. Feasibility evidence only — the authors explicitly call for randomized trials.
Design
Feasibility
Outcome measure
Adherence; retention; acceptability
Remote rehab
Pilot · VAST-rehab · 20 enrolled
A remote program for younger and underserved stroke survivors
Independent third-party research. Full citations in the evidence packet.
A small pilot ran a remote rehab program with young survivors who had limited access to in-person care. Stroke severity scores improved over the program. Twelve of the twenty people enrolled finished it, which is a real signal about how hard remote programs can be to complete.
Mean NIH Stroke Scale fell from 5.6 to 2.7 across the VAST-rehab pilot in young and underserved survivors; 12 of 20 enrolled completed. Descriptive pilot with no control group — no efficacy inference available.
Design
Descriptive pilot
Outcome measure
NIH Stroke Scale
Remote rehab
Meta-analysis · 17 studies · n=3,158
Telehealth after traumatic brain injury: what it does and does not change
Independent third-party research. Full citations in the evidence packet.
Pooling seventeen telehealth studies in brain injury, people came away more confident managing their own recovery. Effects on mood and behaviour were not clear enough to claim.
Across 17 telehealth studies in 3,158 patients with traumatic brain injury, self-management self-efficacy improved (SMD 0.22, 95% CI 0.02–0.42). Neurobehavioural and depression outcomes had confidence intervals crossing zero and should not be cited as benefits.
Design
Meta-analysis
Outcome measure
Self-management self-efficacy (SMD)
No studies match this filter yet.
Need something specific?
Our clinical team can send full texts, protocols, or outcome data for a particular population.
Independent research
Does rehab at home actually work?
Fifteen studies by researchers with no connection to us have asked whether therapy delivered at home holds up against therapy delivered in a clinic. Here is what that body of work found. None of these studies tested our devices — they tell you about the approach, not the product.Fifteen studies by researchers with no connection to us asked whether therapy delivered at home holds up against therapy in a clinic. None of these studies tested our devices — they tell you about the approach, not the product.
Not inferior
to in-clinic therapy at matched dose
From a stroke review and a systematic review of cognitive telerehab. The qualifier matters: same intensity, same duration, same frequency.
99.6%
adherence in a stroke telerehab trial
With 95% retention and acceptability rated 4.4 out of 5. Technology problems were rare. A feasibility study — the authors call for full trials.
5.6 → 2.7
mean NIH Stroke Scale, VAST-rehab pilot
In younger and underserved survivors, 12 of 20 finished the program. A descriptive pilot with no control group.
3,158
brain injury patients across 17 telehealth studies
A small but real gain in self-management confidence (SMD 0.22, CI 0.02–0.42). Neurobehavioural and depression results were not significant.
What this supports
· Home rehabilitation is not inferior to in-clinic therapy when intensity, duration, and frequency are matched.
· High adherence is achievable at home — people can and do keep going.
· Therapy at home means spending your energy on therapy instead of on travel.
· For people without practical access to in-person care, remote rehab is a meaningful alternative.
The honest caveats
· Telerehab has higher dropout than in-clinic care, particularly where there is cognitive impairment.
· Remote is not a replacement. Most people still prefer in-person therapy when they can get it.