NextStep Robotics, a University of Maryland, Baltimore start up tackling stroke rehabilitation, specifically foot drop, has been awarded Phase I of a Fast Track Cooperative Agreement application worth up to $5.4 million over four years by the National Institutes of Health.

NextStep Robotics Inc., an early-stage company that has developed a personalized robotic therapy to help treat foot drop in recovering stroke patients, announces the NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) has awarded the company Phase I of a Fast Track Cooperative Agreement to finalize the design of their new device. Once device finalization is complete and if all milestones are met by NextStep Robotics and approved by NIH the project will move onto Phase II of the agreement worth an additional $4.4M over four years. This support for NextStep comes from NIH/NINDS under award number U44NS111076. 

Phase I of this project is projected to last one year and at the end of this development stage they plan to begin a clinical trial for the device at the University of Maryland Baltimore Rehabilitation and Orthopaedics Institute for Phase II. The clinical trial will allow 120 stroke survivors with foot drop to try the new device that shows promise to durably reverse foot drop for the first time. The technologies’ early success in a small cohort showed promising results that allowed 85% of the subjects to either downgrade or discard their assistive devices including canes, walkers, and ankle foot orthotics (AFO).

Read the full release from NextStep Robotics.