Building international partnerships for stroke rehabilitation

全球每年有1500万人中风，其中英国有10万人，美国有79.5万人，欧洲有110万人。三分之二的患者患有某种形式的认知障碍，在英国，中风的社会成本为256亿GB/年，预计2015-2035年随着人口老龄化的增长，中风的社会成本将增加两倍。传统的护理包括重复的任务来重新学习认知功能，这是一项艰难而乏味的工作，几乎没有对进展的反馈。NICE建议每周接受5天45分钟的住院治疗，但由于人员短缺和成本压力，这一目标很少实现。Virtue是第一个沉浸式虚拟现实(VR)程序，用于中风后认知功能的康复，刺激大脑新区域以弥补受损区域。它反映了职业治疗师使用的方法，帮助患者重新学习日常生活所需的活动，如穿衣服、准备食物和购物。对该原型进行的40名住院患者的临床试验表明，中风患者参与其中，恢复更强劲，可以更早出院。然而，英国在全球中风护理市场中所占份额不到1%，尽管它仍然是关键，但在NHS内部的采用是一个缓慢的过程。为了最大限度地扩大我们的商业成功机会，我们需要发展合作伙伴关系，以进入其他有类似医疗需求的容易进入的市场。为此，我们将专注于进入美国和欧洲市场，这两个市场都拥有成熟和监管良好的医疗体系，以及中东，那里的许多国家是技术的早期采用者，具有有利的报销途径。这项研究的主要结果将是建立早期的海外合作伙伴关系，提供进入新市场的机会，并为商业化打开新的机会。该项目的可交付成果将是每个地区的三个战略营销计划，其中将详细说明商业模式和执行计划。

15m strokes occur each year worldwide, including 100,000 in the UK, 795,000 in the USA and 1.1m in Europe. 2/3rds of patients are left with some form of cognitive impairment and in the UK the societal cost of stroke is £25.6 billion/year and forecast to treble between 2015-2035 as the ageing population grows. Conventional care involves repetitive tasks to relearn cognitive function, which is hard, tedious work with little feedback on progress. NICE recommends 45 minutes of inpatient therapy, five days/week but this is seldom fulfilled due to staffing shortages and cost pressure.Virtue is the first immersive Virtual Reality (VR) programme developed for the rehabilitation of cognitive function after a stroke, stimulating new areas of the brain to compensate for damaged ones. It mirrors the approach used by Occupational Therapists, helping patients re-learn the activities needed for everyday living, such as getting dressed, preparing food and going shopping. A 40-inpatient clinical trial of the prototype has shown that stroke patients engage with it, recover more strongly and can be discharged earlier.Yet the UK represents less than 1% of the global market for stroke care and while it remains key, adoption within the NHS is a slow process. To maximise our chances of commercial success we need to develop partnerships to reach other, readily accessible markets with similar healthcare demands in parallel. To that end we will focus on entering the US and European markets, both having established and well regulated healthcare systems, and the Middle East, where many countries are early adopters of technology with favourable reimbursement pathways.The main outcome from this study will be the establishment of early overseas partnerships that provide access to new markets and open up new opportunities for commercialisation. The deliverables from the project will be three strategic marketing plans for each territory which will detail the business model and execution plan.