Jintronix Files IPO Prospectus: Pioneering Virtual Rehabilitation Platform Powered by Motion-Sensing Technology

Many diseases today cannot be fully cured through medication or surgery alone; patients require a certain degree of rehabilitation therapy to achieve complete recovery. However, due to high costs, prolonged treatment durations, and inadequate rehabilitation exercises, traditional rehabilitation has long been a source of significant distress for many patients, leading some to even abandon treatment altogether. Furthermore, there is a severe global shortage of physical therapists specializing in rehabilitation, making it impossible to meet the vast demand from patients. To address these challenges, Jintronix was established, ensuring that rehabilitation therapy will no longer be a burden for patients!

Jintronix is a Canadian company with branches in both Montreal and Seattle. Jintronix is revolutionizing physical and occupational therapy by providing patients with an easy-to-use, innovative rehabilitation treatment model—namely, the Jintronix platform, a convenient virtual rehabilitation system specifically designed for physical and occupational therapy. The Jintronix platform employs motion-sensing technology, leveraging Microsoft Kinect (the motion-sensing peripheral for Xbox 360), and incorporates gamification elements to provide users with visual feedback, making physical and occupational therapy exercises more engaging. By integrating Microsoft’s Kinect dynamic tracking, virtual gaming, and remote clinical monitoring, Jintronix has created a truly enjoyable and effective rehabilitation tool for patients. Currently, Jintronix has developed three games tailored to different types of rehabilitation, bringing significant benefits to patients undergoing rehabilitative care.



Jintronix features simple setup and user-friendly operation; patients need only a computer and a Kinect sensor to begin rehabilitation exercises. The software can be downloaded and installed on a personal computer, allowing patients to perform corresponding rehabilitation exercises through gamified activities. The Kinect dynamically tracks patient movements and collects data, which is then transmitted to physicians. Capable of capturing the status of 25 human joints in 3D space at a frequency of 30 frames per second, the Kinect tracks 130,000 data points per minute, enabling doctors to obtain more accurate and meaningful data insights. These include the patient’s balance status, movement speed, range of motion, and joint angles—data that allow physicians to calculate issues such as shoulder stress and scapular mobility range. These games incorporate rehabilitation exercises tailored by physical therapists to each patient’s needs. This remote “face-to-face” clinical approach enables therapists and doctors to monitor patients’ rehabilitation progress and provide feedback via video. Patients simply follow the prompts and feedback provided by the software, performing exercises step by step to achieve their rehabilitation goals.



Furthermore, data from patients undergoing rehabilitation therapy can also be utilized for preventive research. For instance, falls among the elderly have long been a prevalent issue, and the U.S. healthcare system has allocated substantial research funding to address this problem. Jintronix’s products are currently being used to study the risk rates of falls in the elderly population. Jintronix aims to accurately calculate the frequency and amplitude of patients’ body sways or movements, thereby helping older adults prevent falls. In May 2014, Jintronix received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This marked the first time the FDA approved the direct integration of Microsoft Kinect into medical devices.

Target Customers

Jintronix is primarily designed for patients who have undergone orthopedic surgeries, such as hip replacement, hip fracture repair, and total knee replacement, as well as for patients with neurological conditions like stroke or traumatic brain injury. The majority of these clients are from hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and rehabilitation centers in the United States. Customers pay a monthly subscription fee and provide usage feedback to Jintronix, helping the company refine its platform. Since 2012, Jintronix has helped more than 5,000 patients complete their rehabilitation therapy in the comfort of their own homes.
In addition to meeting the needs of physical therapy services, Jintronix is also a powerful tool that helps clinicians expand their clinical services.

The Effectiveness of Jintronix

In 2015, clinical validation was a critical step for digital health startups, and Jintronix was no exception.
Mark Elvin, current CEO and co-founder of Jintronix, mentioned in a 2015 telephone interview that a healthcare consortium near Montreal had investigated the efficacy of Jintronix’s rehabilitation tracking technology in improving walking speed. He noted that the study yielded significant findings, with substantial evidence already indicating a correlation between walking speed and mortality rates: slower walking speeds are associated with higher mortality. The research team divided patients into two groups, one using the Jintronix platform and the other not. The results showed that the group using the Jintronix platform experienced an increase in walking speed. This development is highly exciting for assisted living providers, long-term care centers, and developers of bundled payment programs. The technology is scheduled for implementation and release this year.

Furthermore, in the fall of 2015, Jintronix launched a data dashboard that aggregates patient data automatically transmitted from its rehabilitation platform. This dashboard is critical for assisted living providers, as it enables them to quantify patients’ rehabilitation progress and sustain reimbursement claims.
While empowering patients to return to a fulfilling life is a strong driving force for Jintronix, reducing healthcare costs is its key selling point. Hospitals will soon charge patients for the use of Jintronix; however, Jintronix must ensure patient safety and enable patients to undergo rehabilitation therapy at home using the system.

Advantages of Jintronix



Increase Reimbursement Costs
Jintronix can provide insurers with the necessary data to assess reimbursement claims and facilitate continued treatment. By using the Jintronix platform, physicians can access various valid assessment metrics and multiple ways to demonstrate patient progress, such as charts, images, or videos.



Automated Documentation
Jintronix can rapidly export and effectively record the data it tracks. This enables Jintronix to automatically generate documentation, saving physicians time on completing various paper forms and thereby allowing them to devote more time to patient care.



Enhanced Adherence
Surveys indicate that over 65% of patients fail to fully complete, or even entirely neglect, the rehabilitation exercises prescribed by their physicians. Furthermore, once patients leave the clinic, it is difficult for clinicians to determine whether they are adhering to medical advice in performing these exercises. However, with Jintronix, this gamified therapy model alters patients’ psychological perception of daily rehabilitation exercises, reducing resistance and enhancing compliance. Additionally, physicians can identify problems encountered by patients outside the clinic through a remote monitoring platform.



More Incentivizing
Jintronix leverages gamification elements such as points, badges, and social media to foster competition among patients during therapy, thereby enhancing their motivation and encouragement. The greater the patient’s motivation, the higher the likelihood of a rapid recovery.



More Affordable Pricing
Rehabilitation therapy provided at clinics is typically conducted in a one-on-one format, which is costly and limited in duration. Jintronix enables patients to access high-quality treatment services at an affordable price.



More Convenient Treatment
Patients no longer need to travel to clinics for rehabilitation therapy; Jintronix enables them to perform rehabilitation exercises independently at home, while physicians can remotely monitor and guide their treatment.

Company Origins

Jintronix was co-founded in 2010 by Justin Tan, Shawn Errunza, Mark Evin, Lex Youssef, and Sonny Sung Jun Bae. Justin Tan sought to help his father, who had suffered a stroke, recover through physical therapy. However, he realized that traditional physical therapy is prohibitively expensive and arduous for many patients, with some even unable to access treatment at all. Consequently, the co-founders collaborated with physical therapists to develop Jintronix, an affordable, interactive virtual rehabilitation system.

Company Fundraising and Development Overview

In 2012, Jintronix relocated its business operations from Montreal, Canada, to Washington State, USA. In November 2012, Madrona Venture Group provided Jintronix with $1.2 million in seed funding, and the company reestablished its headquarters in Seattle.

Daniel Schacter, Chief Operating Officer of Jintronix, stated at the Wharton School Healthcare Conference in February 2015 that the company had begun raising equity capital to double its workforce and expand its interactive physical therapy platform. Schacter indicated that while Jintronix might raise over $3 million, it aims to secure $5 million and hire an additional 10–25 employees, including sales representatives, programmers, and data specialists. Currently, Jintronix collaborates with 70 physicians, increasing patient adherence to therapeutic exercise from 20% to 75%–80%. Furthermore, the company is currently conducting 14 clinical trials.

At the conference, Schacter noted that Jintronix’s greatest challenge is not reimbursement issues, but rather persuading patients to engage in rehabilitation exercises. In reality, there is no competitive relationship between rehabilitation exercises and reimbursement. If Jintronix can articulate value propositions such as facilitating the transition of rehabilitation care to value-based payment models, accelerating the assessment of patient performance during rehabilitation therapy, and improving patient satisfaction, it will be easier to convince clinics to adopt its solutions once these benefits are clearly communicated. Schacter stated, “We have demonstrated that our platform model is effective; now we need to scale our business.”

In addition to helping older adults recover from orthopedic surgery, stroke, and traumatic brain injury, Jintronix is actively exploring other areas such as sports medicine. In January 2015, Jintronix partnered with Highmark and Allegheny Health System to assess the risk of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries in student athletes. Jintronix won the Grand Prize at the “International Festival of Entrepreneurship” in Montreal in 2012 and received the “Global Health Industry Star Award” in the “Canada Big Challenge.”

Compiled by: Mao Wanyi

Responsible Editor: Zhang Nan