GONDOLA · Automated Mechanical Peripheral Stimulation for motor rehabilitation in people living with Parkinson’s Disease (PD)

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative brain disorder, characterised by the inability of a person’s brain to produce a neurotransmitter called dopamine, lessening a person’s ability to regulate body motions. PD affects 10m people globally, its prevalence is expected to double by 2040. There is no cure for PD, current therapies focus on treating symptoms that undermine patients’ quality of life. Costs associated with PD are higher than its prevalence, causing substantial economic burden on individuals, families and society. In 2004, the annual spending in Europe on PD was €10.7b. As costly as they are, these therapies improve motor symptoms in the early stages of PD, but over time, patients have more and more reduced response to medications and become more disabled. Thus, they cannot be considered as ideal with regard to efficacy, long-term effectiveness and safety. NINDS (part of the US NIH) set recommendations addressing Gait as one of the 3 top priorities for advancing basic clinical research on PD. We have aligned ourselves with NINDS’ strategy through development of GondolaTM.GondolaTM is a portable medical device made for people living with PD. It delivers a non-invasive neurostimulation treatment named Automated Mechanical Peripheral Stimulation (AMPS). It is based on physical neurostimulations of specific points in both feet, which allow to increase the afferent inputs from the peripheral nervous system to the spinal cord, and induce a better functioning of the central pattern generator (the mechanism that regulates movements in the body). Four clinical studies have documented that AMPS is effective in improving motor skills in PD, particularly slowness of movements and freezing of gait. Users have derived the following benefits from the device: Reduced Freezing of gait, gait hesitation, slowness of movements, improved independence, self-confidence, fluidity in walking and balance, reducing the risk of falls and improving the quality of life.