Parkite Steven Boal is helping those who are paralyzed get back on their feet.
He is chief executive officer of Matia Mobility, which has created a mobility platform called the Tek RMD — short for robotic mobilization device.
“The model we sell is the M1,” Boal said. “It was designed with three primary objectives or principles in mind to get someone who is paralyzed or has a walking disability and get them upright, eye-level and mobile on their own.”
The first objective, eye-level, helps those who use the M1 to not feel “mechanized,” Boal said.
“You don’t feel surrounded by the equipment, and you don’t feel overly taller or shorter than your normally standing height,” he said. “A big complaint you hear from people in wheelchairs is they don’t want to be spoken down to. They want to be at eye level.”
Using the restroom without help is the second principle, Boal said.
“This device is designed uniquely, and we have worldwide intellectual property on it,” he said. “If their body can use the bathroom, there’s a sling that holds them upright with a weight bearing all the way down to their feet. Even with paralysis with no feeling from midsection down, they can use this to stand, and they can access the small stall in a public bathroom.”
The person then lowers the sling, which lets them sit on the toilet, according to Boal.
“From a dignity perspective it’s about not needing an aid and not needing to transfer from wheelchair to toilet seat,” he said.
The third objective is remote control, Boal said.
“You can use the device to lower yourself onto anywhere on a couch and then take the remote control off your wrist where you wear it and drive the device out of sight,” he said. “(That way) you’ve mentally broken free of the fact that you need a wheelchair. It’s mentally freeing.”
The derivative benefit is the person doesn’t need to rely on another person to help them get out of bed, Boal said.
“You call it over and and swing your legs over the side of the bed, and the device will lift you onto it,” he said.
While wheelchairs are bulky, the Tek RMD is sleek, Boal said.
“It’s designed to fit in non-ADA spaces, so it fits in a normal home,” he said. “All you need is a ramp, and then you can get into pantries and use your kitchen. That’s because it moves you up and down. So you can reach the upper cabinets or upper oven, and you can reach your lower cabinets and drawers.”
There are currently “many hundreds” of the Tek RMD currently in the field, Boal said.
“The first person who got one in the United States was a fellow named Bill Winchester,” he said. “Bill was the captain of the fire team in Reno, Nevada, and lost his mobility in a biking accident. Within the past year, he was able to walk across the lawn with his daughter during an award ceremony.”
Another client, Dr. Ian Brown, is an operating-room anesthesiologist in the New Jersey area, Boal said.
“Ian was in the military and injured in the line of fire,” he said.
Brown graduated from medical school after his service and is able to work in the operating room because of this device, according to Boal.
“Anesthesiologists need to reach high and low cabinets quickly, and they need to maneuver around attending physicians and nurses,” he said. “They set up a demo lab to make sure Ian could do all of those things, and did. So now, he’s able to practice as a full operating doctor because of the Tek RMD.”
In addition to Brown, others who are pursuing careers in medicine are using the Tek RMD.
“We have medical-school students who can graduate standing up with their classes,” he said. “But we also have people who are now able to get married standing up. And we just had a woman use the device to stand for the first time in 42 years. It’s heartwarming to see that.”
Two robotics engineers — Necati Hacikadiroglu and Enes Canidemir — founded Matia Mobility in 2012.
“It was originally a product incubated in a robotics lab at a university in Istanbul, Turkey,” he said. “They are both still with the company, and one of them is on our board.”
The engineers designed the prototype of the Tek RMD for a friend who is paraplegic, and Boal saw a video, which piqued his interest in helping get the device built for market.
“We got our first FDA clearance in 2016, and we got our second in 2020, which is the device we sell today,” he said. “We established our facility in the United States in 2018.”
The facility is located in Salt Lake City, Boal said.
“We have a 13,000 square-foot manufacturing facility near the airport, and we have 38 sales reps around the country,” he said.
Matia Mobility launched the current product, which includes an outdoor kit, a folding transfer seat and warranties, in 2022, Boal said.
“We got our direct-to-consumer license granted that year, and in 2023, the Veterans Administration accepted us,” he said. “We also started accepting insurance this year, and on June 1, our big announcement was that Blue Cross/Blue Shield came on board. We now have coverage with every major carrier.”
Boal saw the importance of getting insurance companies involved because Matia Mobility is “solely patient driven.”
“Every device that goes out the door doesn’t just have a serial number — it’s got a name,” he said. “Our staff knows why that person is getting the device and they know the impact it will have on their lives. And, we have staff members and administration, me included, who have family members who have been in wheelchairs. So, we are passionate about what we’re doing.”
For information about Matia Mobility and the Tek RMD, visit matiamobility.com.