# FitMi Plus: Smart Functional Modules for Practicing Activities of Daily Living after Stroke

> **NIH NIH R44** · FLINT REHABILITATION DEVICES · 2021 · $682,853

## Abstract

Over 50% of the 700,000 individuals who survive a stroke each year have persistent movement
impairments. Intensive rehabilitation could reduce their impairments, but access to such therapy is
limited. Home therapy could supplement time with a therapist, but the current standard of care is
simply providing individuals printed sheets of exercises, an approach that is not motivating and
often not effective. Technological solutions do exist, but none provide an effective means for
individuals to directly practice activities of daily living in a motivating way on their own at home. The
goal of this Fast Track SBIR is to develop and test FitMi Plus, an improved version of Flint Rehab’s
commercially successful FitMi system for motivating at-home therapeutic exercise. The original
FitMi system consists of two wireless input devices called Pucks that each contain an array of
sensors and connect to a software application that detects when simple exercises are completed.
FitMi Plus will expand the capabilities of FitMi to detect the completion of activities of daily living by
coupling common objects to the Pucks via distinct Functional Modules. This approach has the key
advantage of allowing the most expensive and complex components of the system to be reused
with each Functional Module, thus minimizing cost and maximizing system flexibility. We
hypothesize that home therapy with FitMi Plus will be feasible for individuals with motor impairment
due to stroke and more motivating and effective than the current standard of practice, printed
sheets of exercises. The aims of this Fast Track project are to: 1) Establish the feasibility of FitMi
Plus by pilot testing an initial set of 4 Functional Modules that can detect turning a doorknob,
zipping a zipper, turning on a light switch, and pouring liquid into a glass; 2) Expand the library of
Functional Modules based on feedback from PTs and OTs; and 3) Compare the efficacy of home-
based functional training with FitMi Plus to non-functional exercise in a randomized controlled trial
with individuals with chronic stroke. We hypothesize that individuals who exercise with FitMi Plus
will have significantly greater increases in functional ability than individuals who do not perform
functional exercises during their home therapy. If successful, this project will result in a
commercially-ready, clinically validated home therapy tool that could become widely adopted in
actual practice, thus improving long-term functional recovery after stroke.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10055788
- **Project number:** 5R44HD097803-03
- **Recipient organization:** FLINT REHABILITATION DEVICES
- **Principal Investigator:** Daniel Zondervan
- **Activity code:** R44 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $682,853
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-11-11 → 2022-10-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10055788

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10055788, FitMi Plus: Smart Functional Modules for Practicing Activities of Daily Living after Stroke (5R44HD097803-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10055788. Licensed CC0.

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