Maanav Narula still remembers the day he walked into his grandmother's room and saw her struggling to sign her name on a letter. The doctors had diagnosed her with Essential Tremor, but it was only in that moment that he realised what that really meant. Over the next few months, simple tasks like eating, writing and dressing became difficult for her.
These kinds of hand tremors affect over 120 million people worldwide. It affects those with Essential Tremor, Parkinson's Disease, Alzheimer's, stroke patients and so many more. Hand tremors have such a disabling effect that patients suffer emotionally too. Over half of patients suffer from depression and over 25 per cent retire early due to their tremors. They report losing a sense of identity, avoid leaving their homesand even feel forgotten by the medical community.
They feel this way because the current solutions in the market are lacking. Medication is the first line of defense, but it's only 50 per cent effective, its effectiveness reduces over time and it has severe side effects. Some patients with severe tremors also attempt deep brain stimulation. Though effective, the surgery is expensive and risky, and simply not feasible for the majority of patients. Because of these tradeoffs, neither solution was feasible for Maanav's grandmother.
He set out to solve this problem for them. By visiting support groups, sending out surveys and interviewing patients, he first figured out exactly what kind of solution people wanted. He then bought the assistive devices currently on the market to see how they worked and why more people weren't using them. What he discovered was that customers valued the form factor - the size, shape and weight - of the device almost as much as its ability to reduce tremors. But almost all of these assistive devices were too bulky or heavy. Even if they reduced tremors, they didn't resolve the social anxiety patients felt. The bulky devices simply drew too much attention and questions from others. And the fact that they were heavy made it difficult to use throughout the day without tiring their arms.
To tackle this problem, Maanav started with what he had — he took the technologies used today and tried to improve their form factor. He even tried combining some of them together. But he couldn't get it down to where customers would be comfortable wearing it. He spent months searching for a better way and eventually landed on a familiar technology. The year before, he had taken a class on vibrational dynamics as part of his mechanical engineering degree at the University of Pennsylvania. He learned about using earthquake-proofing technology to keep buildings stable. And that's when a light bulb went off. Could he take this proven technology and scale it down to the size of a human hand? Would it have the same effect that is has on buildings? And what would be different if he uses it on a scale 800 times smaller than its typical application? This is exactly what he explored during his senior design thesis.
His first course of action was to see if this solution was even theoretically possible, let alone practical. He developed a mathematical model and found that there was in fact a narrow range to make this work. But it was theoretically possible. That was the first validation.
The next step was to translate this into a real product. The first version only needed to show proof of concept. And sure enough, it took the form of a bulky 1.5 inch thick bracelet. It also only worked for one particular tremor pattern at a time. But it was enough to show that the concept worked. Patients of course didn't like the form factor yet, but it worked. That was the second validation.
Maanav then needed to figure out if this could be a viable business. He leveraged resources from his degrees at Wharton and Penn Engineering, including taking their entrepreneurship and venture capital classes, to build out his business model. This is also when the device got a name: Minimize. He entered pitch competitions and won several awards including the Innovation Prize at the Wharton Startup Challenge and the Medical Device Excellence Awards at the MD&M Trade Show in New York.
This was the third validation. It was enough for him to turn down job offers after graduating and he decided to pursue this full time. He moved to Chicago to continue building the company. His next goal was clear: Bring down the size and weight of Minimize. Unfortunately, this coincided with the onset of the pandemic and lockdowns. It was difficult to make a prototype from home and even more difficult to meet patients and test the product. Instead, he built his own mechanical tremor simulator to test and improve Minimize. Now, Minimize is able to reduce tremors by up to 80-95 per cent and takes the form of a lightweight, discreet bracelet. Similar to a step tracker, Minimize can also collect patient data to show how their tremor severity is changing over time. This can help patients identify triggers for their tremor and thus empowers them to make lifestyle changes to better manage the symptom. Lastly, while Minimize does have a battery, it doesn't have to be charged for it to be effective in counteracting tremors.
To make Minimize commercially available, however, it has to go through the FDA's regulatory pathway. To navigate these complex regulations, Maanav joined a MedTech accelerator at mHUB, an innovation center in Chicago. The six-month program provided funding, technical resources, mentorship, access to corporate partners and strong connections in the Chicagol and area. Since joining, he pitched to the program's corporate partners in Baxter and Edward Elmhurst Health Venture Capital and secured additional investments from them both. The traction Minimize has gained since the program has led the company to open their seed round earlier than expected. This funding round will help complete clinical trials, FDA registration and commercialisation next year. Maanav's goal is to give all patients access to this non-invasive, non-pharmacological form of tremor therapy.
He believes patients shouldn't have to choose between the current subpar treatment options. What he first built for his grandmother, he now wants to build for the millions of others suffering from hand tremors.