MedRhythms received $25 million in Series A funding to expand its digital therapy platform. This platform is designed to improve someone's ability to walk after a neurologic injury.Morningside Ventures, Advantage Capital, and Werth Family Investment Associates participated in the round. This gave the Portland, Maine-based company a total of $31 million.Brian Harris, the company's co-founder and CEO, was a neurologic music fellow at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital. This hospital treats stroke victims and people with brain deficits using music. Patients and their families began asking him questions about how they could get similar care elsewhere. In 2016, Owen McCarthy, an entrepreneur, founded MedRhythms.The platform includes music, software and sensors that target movement's neural circuitry. The technology taps into the neurologic process of entrainment in which the motor and auditory systems of the brain work in sync with an external rhythmic cue. This can eventually lead to better walking functions.Harris stated that music is the only stimulus that can engage the brain as well as any other. Music can help in neuroplasticity, which is the ability to make new connections and strengthen existing ones. Neuroplasticity refers to the ability to learn new things and how people with brain impairments can improve their abilities.MedRhythms, a digital therapeutic product that treats chronic walking problems caused by strokes, was awarded Breakthrough Device status from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration a year ago. The company is currently developing this product, and is also exploring the possibility of using music to treat neurological conditions such as multiple sclerosis, acute stroke, Parkinsons and acute stroke. It is also participating in a neuroimaging research study with Massachusetts General Hospital.Harris plans to use the proceeds of the Series B funding to bring the product to market and expand the team. The company is currently preparing to submit the FDA for approval so that it can launch the technology commercially and start clinical trials.Morningside investment partner Stephen Bruso said he's known the MedRhythms team for a year. The company is active in digital health and the firm has been following the company closely ever since.COVID was a fundamental shift in healthcare's delivery of care. He said that the hospital and clinic models were stable, but not adaptable until the pandemic, when telemedicine was introduced at home. Innovation was also required in the industry. At-home therapy is one area where Bruso anticipates improvement in patient compliance and recovery. MedRhythms is taking advantage of this trend to shift care to the home.The idea of altering the brain through non-pharmaceutical means was what has intrigued the company for the past few months.Bruso said that MedRhythms uses musical intervention to drive neurologic improvements and changes. Music is a key component of emotional memory. The company exists to tap into this richer experience.
