Tulip Make Me Move Desk, LLC is a startup medical device company based on R&D of the MultifunctionalRehabilitation Standing & Stepping Device (MRSSD) prototype. The MRSSD is a standing desk with amultidirectional moving tabletop that induces stepping movements while standing and simultaneously performingmotor and cognitive activities behind it. The MRSSD can serve as a stand-alone rehabilitation device or as anadjunct to (physical therapy) PT. A prior very basic prototype of the MRSSD, called the "dynamic standing desk"(DSK), has shown clinical feasibility of in-home use in persons with Parkinson's disease (PwP) showing anaverage 2-hr daily use that was sustained over a 4-month period. Importantly, post-PT improvements in gait andbalance fucntions were sustained over this period while lost in a usual care control group. Movement of the DSK, however, was limited to fixed speed and mediolateral excursions only. This precludes individualized therapeuticuse that is needed for the highly variable range of impairments in gait, balance, cognition, sarcopenia, andcommon medical comorbidities, such as metabolic or vestibular changes and sarcopenia, seen in PwP.Therefore, there is a need for symptom-specific rehabilitation goals in PwP that is also low cost, barrier-free andunlike intermittent PT can be sustained in the long-term. We propose to develop a multifunctional rehabilitationdevice that allows individualized targeting of specific morbidities in PwP, such as imbalance (emphasis onmediolateral excursions), gait turning (emphasis on rotatory excursions), metabolic syndrome and sarcopenia(emphasis on higher intensity and large excursions), vestibular changes (emphasis on anterior-posterior androtatory excursions), and cognitive impairment (emphasis on cognitive-motor dual tasking desktop activities).Therefore, the MRSSD has the potential to provide a multifunctional, barrier-free, sustainable and low-costintervention to improve gait, balance, medical comorbidities and maintain cognition in PwP, who are at risk ofdementia, including comorbid Alzheimer's disease. The MRSSD rehabilitation device will also fill a therapeuticvoid by providing a rehabilitation standing desk that can uniquely integrate individualized multidirectionalstepping therapy with routine activities of daily living in the home environment thereby enabling long-termsustained utilization rates. The goals of this STTR proposal are (i) to develop a next-generation MRSSDmultidirectional and variable range and intensity mobility, metabolic and cognitive-motor rehabilitationtherapy device, (ii) collect user acceptance and in-lab feasibility of repeated use data & (iii) conduct apilot controlled clinical trial to generate data to power a large-scale clinical trial in Phase II. The long-termgoal of this STTR is to provide a cost-effective, easy to implement a sustainable multi-purpose rehabilitationoption for patient populations with mobility, metabolic and cognitive impairments.
Public Health Relevance Statement: NARRATIVE
Persons with Parkinson's disease may manifest a highly variable range and presence of impairments in gait,
balance, cognition and common medical comorbidities, such as frailty and metabolic changes. Tulip Make Me
Move Desk, LLC, proposes to develop a multipurpose rehabilitation standing and stepping device that promotes
stepping movements while allowing simultaneous use of routine desktop activities in the user's own home
environment that allows individualized therapies targeting specific components that contribute to gait, balance
and cognitive problems in persons with Parkinson's disease. .
Project Terms: