Give your team a tool that amplifies what they can already do.

Walking impairment is the primary driver of prolonged inpatient stays and institutional discharge in stroke patients. High-intensity, repetitive gait training is what the evidence recommends — but in a busy ISU, with real staffing constraints and patient fatigue, delivering that volume is a daily challenge.

Kickstart™ changes that equation. By mechanically supporting hip flexion during the swing phase of gait, it allows therapists to conduct longer, more intensive walking sessions with less physical demand on both the clinician and the patient. The result is more therapy, better outcomes, and a pathway to earlier home discharge.

What your PT/OT team can expect:

•       Device introduction requiring only a 1-hour demonstration and a short instructional video — no formal training program required

•       Don and doff time under 5 minutes — compatible with standard therapy session structure

•       No electronics, no calibration, no maintenance overhead

•       Clinician-reported improvements in session efficiency and patient endurance

•       A passive mechanism that supports — never replaces — clinical judgment

The financial case for Kickstart™ in your stroke unit.

Stroke is one of the most resource-intensive conditions in Canadian inpatient care. The mean one-year attributable cost of stroke in Ontario is approximately $33,500 per patient (Vyas et al., 2023). Inpatient rehabilitation accounts for the largest share of that cost — and length of stay is its primary driver.

Kickstart™ supports earlier functional recovery and home discharge. Our modelled cost comparison, based on published Canadian rehabilitation data, shows a 12% reduction in per-patient care pathway costs — approximately $2,775 in savings per patient — when the Kickstart™ pathway is used versus standard care.

Key financial considerations:

•       Device cost is a one-time capital expenditure — not a recurring per-patient cost

•       Shorter inpatient rehabilitation stays free up bed capacity for incoming patients

•       Greater proportion of home discharge reduces downstream institutional care costs

•       Ontario stroke system faces ongoing ALC and wait time pressures — every day of LOS reduction matters (RCA System Performance Report, 2023/24)

Contact us for a site-specific cost modelling conversation.

Designed for the way rehabilitation actually works.

You know better than anyone that the gap between what a rehabilitation device promises in a research paper and what it delivers in a real clinical session can be enormous. Kickstart™ was designed with that gap in mind.

Why clinicians use it:

•       Passive, spring-loaded mechanism — no power source, no charging, nothing to go wrong mid-session

•       The Exotendon™ stores energy during the stance phase and releases it during swing — bio-inspired by equine biomechanics, with direct application to hemiparetic gait

•       Adjustable tension via a ratchet dial on the waist belt — tuned to each patient in real time

•       Applied to the more-affected limb; fits with standard rehabilitation footwear

•       Documented patient acceptance: stroke survivors report improved confidence, stability, and willingness to use the device (Yao et al., 2021)

What the research shows:

•       Reduced weight-bearing asymmetry and double support time during gait (Yao et al., 2021)

•       Improved lower limb motor function (FMA-LE) and reduced subjective fatigue (Liang et al., 2025)

•       Enhanced muscle activation in iliopsoas and rectus femoris — key swing-phase muscles in post-stroke gait (Liang et al., 2025)

•       Increased walking speed and endurance in chronic neurological patients (Glaister et al., 2015)

We offer a 1-hour in-person demonstration for your ISU team. No obligation, no lengthy sales process.

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