Actics Technology

Antics technology is based on 2 patents and combines real-time monitoring, cloud-based artificial intelligence, and big data analysis, enabling data collection, remote diagnosis, and dynamic adjustment of the insole surface for optimal and effective patient treatment.  

The company is developing and planning different levels of products to provide the broadest possible solutions to all the target audiences, addressing a wide range of needs and currently approved healthcare system budgets.

The company's first two products:

• One - a bio-mechanical insole with an adjustable built-in mechanism that enables high-level accurate customization to the patient's foot, in one visit to the orthopedist, the insole manufacturer, or the physiotherapist. The product will replace the current expensive and outdated treatment method that requires about 3 visits to a practitioner. Development was completed, was tested on tens of patients, and is ready for manufacturing and commercialization.   
• Actics Hybrid+ - a revolutionary hybrid product that combines a digital-sensory system for continuous monitoring and irregularity alerts (pressure, temperature, motion) with a built-in adjustment mechanism. This enables immediate adjustment of the position on the insole to the updated foot condition and treatment of the clinical problem. Expected to reach the commercialization stage in Q2 2024.

Engineering validation tests of the measurement quality of the main risk indicators (pressure and temperature), which the company conducted at the Hadassah Medical Center Gait Laboratory, showed a 98% correlation compared to the measurement data of the accepted gold standard device.  Furthermore, the company conducted clinical validation tests to monitor foot condition and deformity correction with tens of patients at Hadassah Medical Center and NYU (U.S.) and obtained excellent results.

In a letter summarizing the clinical validation trials, Prof. Lew Schon, a world-renowned foot and ankle surgeon and former president of the AOFAS, and Prof. David Armstrong, a surgeon, esteemed podiatry specialist, and healthcare policy advisor to governments and insurance companies, announced the results:  

The company has begun to plan the “next generation” product that is based on Actics technology and combines new advanced technologies with an artificial muscle. This product will be an autonomous digital insole, combined with highly sensitive sensory capabilities and a smart polymer and nanorobotic-based adjustment mechanism.  

This mechanism will simulate an artificial muscle and will enable electroactive deformation and construction of the insole surface structure within seconds to fully and accurately fit the patient's feet, with the ability to analyze and characterize the differences between the right and left foot.      

Diabetes - Consumer Audience

One of the common complications of diabetes is damage to the nervous system (diabetic neuropathy), the muscle system, peripheral blood vessels, and loss of sensation in the lower limbs. There are over 200 million diabetes patients at risk of developing diabetic foot ulcers (DFU), of which about 15 million are in the U.S.

The annual national expenditure for DFU treatment in the U.S. alone is about $50 billion.  

Diabetes patients who develop diabetic foot sores and ulcers (DFU) may develop severe infections that may even lead to gangrene and partial/full lower leg amputation. Studies prove that up to 80% of DFU cases can be prevented if early measures are taken to detect the development of the causes of the problem and to treat them quickly.  

Actics technology provides a direct, accurate, and comprehensive solution for early detection of diabetic foot problems, enabling prevention in most cases as well as assistance in treatment.

General Orthopedics - Consumer Audience 

A significant proportion of the world's population suffers from orthopedic problems that impact their everyday functioning, among them: flatfoot - characterized by a foot with little or no arch, or high arch foot - where the arch of the foot is abnormally high, as well as plantar fasciitis, metatarsalgia, severe corns, bunions, infections, Charcot and more. These conditions impair mobility and stability functions and the distribution of body weight on the feet, causing pain and differing degrees of mobility limitations. These physiological conditions can lead to additional problems such as knee and lower back problems.    

Insurance companies do not include some of these conditions in their insurance policies and the expensive treatment costs are therefore incurred by the patient. Healthcare systems also provide only partial coverage and require co-payment. As a result, many avoid receiving medical treatment.

Insoles can provide a solution and alleviate limb fatigue or foot, thigh, knee, and even lower back pain. The company developed its products with the people suffering from these problems in mind. The aim is to simplify processes, reduce the number of treatments, and shorten the duration of each treatment, all at a cost that enables many patients to join those receiving treatment.   

Practitioners in the Medical Community

The Actics Medical professional target audience includes podiatrists - foot specialists, orthopedists, insole manufacturers, and physiotherapists, who are in daily contact with patients suffering from foot and ankle problems and complications.

The specializing physicians are authorized to approve medical treatments and medical devices covered by the insuring entities: government health systems and private insurance companies. 

The company presented its products in different development stages at professional conferences and in individual presentations to numerous practitioners in all treatment fields. The products garnered great interest among this target audience owing to two important aspects: the first, a significant medical-health solution for their patients, and second, adding a remote treatment system to their clinics, enabling them to provide a solution to a  larger number of patients while increasing their revenues.

The Funding Entities

In most developed world countries both the government and private insurance systems approve and cover most of the medical treatment and product costs of diabetes patients. Insurers continuously examine new technologies and products that may contribute to improving the patient's condition, and especially to reduce their huge expenditures in this medical area. In the DFU field, the emphasis in recent years is on prevention. In the U.S., insurance companies have approved payment to courses of treatment (CPT codes) for remote monitoring, devices, and treatments that contribute to achieving this goal.    

Activity Market

The company operates in the global digital health market that was valued at USD 223.5 billion in 2022 and is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 27.4% from 2023 to 2030 and to reach USD 1,432.92 billion by 2030. Almost half a trillion dollars!    

The significant growth driver in this market stems from the removal of numerous regulatory barriers in healthcare systems and changes in remote medicine accelerated by the coronavirus crisis, as well as from improved IP and VoIP communication infrastructures between physicians and patients. Furthermore, insurance companies adapted to these changes and provide insurance coverage for remote services.   

Competition

The main competition facing Actics Medical is from the old and familiar methods and protocols according to which treatment only begins after an ulcer has developed and a severe foot health problem has arisen. The current medical treatment standard, which is based on clinic visits, has hardly achieved any success in efforts to prevent DFU.  

In recent years, young companies (such as Orpyx, Podimetrics, and Siren) have developed digital products to monitor and warn of the developing danger of a pathology. These products enable partial monitoring and are not connected to a mechanism that enables preventive-integrative treatment and a rapid solution to acute risk conditions.

Moreover, their insoles are not customized and the patients must therefore order insoles that are manufactured and customized using outdated and cumbersome methods. This complexity results in the loss and waste of valuable medical and treatment time and increases the cost of the entire course of treatment.

Actics Medical offers a changed approach with a system that includes personally customized insoles for continuous monitoring that enables the detection of early warning signs, in addition to an integral mechanism for immediate treatment intervention - preventive and curative intervention in numerous risk cases.  

Actics Medical Competitive Advantages

• Remote medicine: continuous and accurate remote diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment, in real-time, including detection and alert of physiological changes that may affect foot health.   
• Prefabricated product: with high-precision customization for almost any problem requiring the use of a medical insole.  
• Manufacturing costs: tens of percentages lower than those of the competitors.
• Built-in gait laboratory: for the first time the continuous monitoring in the insole captures real-time out-of-lab data during the user's everyday life as well, data which currently can only be obtained in gait laboratories. This offers significant cost-savings for physicians who treat patients and will not have to purchase and maintain expensive equipment and a large clinic.
• Integral dynamic adjustment mechanism: enables correction and personal customization of the insole surface (off-loading) to offload pressure and prevent the development of an ulcer, as well as pain or injury.
• Monitor effectiveness of preventive treatment: continuous update of patient preventive treatment compliance and persistence, and the clinical condition of the treated foot.

Business Model

The company has a B2B2C business model based on marketing partnerships with leading medical product distributors in the diabetes and orthopedic market that work with the target markets. These markets include diabetes physicians, orthopedic physicians, podiatrists, insole manufacturers, and physiotherapists.   

In preparation and parallel, the company plans to establish its own representative office (in main concentrations of the target population - NY/east coast and California) to promote acquaintance with its products among the deciding entities - practitioners and insurance companies - and will make initial sales directly to the designated medical community.  

There are two sales tracks in the diabetes and orthopedics market:

• The SaaS model is mainly customary in the diabetes market in which most patient costs are covered by insurance companies. In this track, most of the revenue to the company and the practitioners is received from ongoing monthly payments and the provision of private medical treatment. The basic monthly receipts - are according to four existing designated CPT codes for diabetes.  
• The direct sale model that is usually applied to patients suffering from various orthopedic problems who are not fully covered or whose problem is not included under the coverage. These patients usually incur the cost of treatment, and our ability to significantly reduce this cost is therefore of great importance.