SYNCSENSE ApS is a Danish medtech company that develops VR-supported digital therapy for the prevention and treatment of institution- and hospital-related complications resulting from prolonged physical inactivity and reduced cognitive function. Read more about digital therapy HERE.
Our first product (SYNCSENSE®) is a VR-supported training intervention for society’s most frail and inactive older people and people with disabilities.
The idea of developing a simple and effective intervention against physical inactivity and boredom started in 2018 from an R&D project at Herlev and Gentofte Hospital. An idea/project which was later spun out by the two founders and former fellow students Simon Bruntse Andersen and Steen Petersen from the University of Copenhagen and the Technical University of Denmark. The idea originally stems from the fact that Simon experienced his grandparents being very inactive and understimulated in their final days. Steen, on the other hand, is originally trained as a physiotherapist and, through his 10 years as a physiotherapist in the Netherlands, Portugal and Denmark, has had first-hand experience of the problem.
Today Simon and Steen own 100% of SYNCSENSE ApS, including all IP rights, which cover both an international patent and a European trademark. On its journey, SYNCSENSE ApS has received funding from private and public foundations as well as from two of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, Johnson & Johnson and Bristol Myers Squibb. Simon and Steen have distinguished themselves in national as well as international innovation and entrepreneurship programmes and have most recently received Denmark’s first prize in artificial intelligence, the Danish AI Award, and have also been nominated for Entrepreneur Of The Year in the category Social Entrepreneurship – Future Impact in both 2021 and 2022.
SYNCSENSE ApS is today a cross-disciplinary team of digital health specialists and collaborates with world-leading organisations within health and digital technology. We combine participatory design with Nordic design aesthetics and agile software development to ensure a meaningful and value-creating solution. This means that we actively involve patients, citizens and healthcare professionals in the design process via living labs.
Our mission is to make it possible to bring meaningful and stimulating experiences as well as motivating training to the people who need it the most. In this way we want to help create the best possible everyday life for society’s most vulnerable and fragile older people and people with brain injury, as well as for their families and healthcare professionals.
The SYNCSENSE® solution and the team behind it have received great recognition
SYNCSENSE is among those across the world, selected as international Catalyst winners in the Healthy Longevity Global Competition founded by the U.S. National Academy of Medicine. The competition will accelerate their research and innovation in healthy longevity. “This diverse and cross-disciplinary group is helping improve the physical, mental, and social well-being of people as they age”.
The award is part of a multiyear, multistage, and multimillion-dollar international competition seeking potential breakthrough innovations aiming to extend human health and function later in life. SYNCSENSE is chosen among +1500 applicants from 50 countries.
See more about NAM and their 8 global partners.
“The Cardiology Department B and SYNCSENSE win the RAP prize 2022 at OUH’s Innovation Day – for the innovative solution: VR headsets as a digital training intervention for admitted heart patients.
The RAP prize is awarded to a ‘Relevant and Ambitious Idea’, implemented at Odense University Hospital and Svendborg Hospital, which supports both OUH’s innovation strategy and our code ‘Patient First’.”
The winning solution must be able to show (preliminary) results of the solution’s effect and value for OUH’s patients and organisation, as well as that the solution has the potential for scaling up and can benefit more people at OUH and/or in the rest of the Region of Southern Denmark.
It was the 100 clinicians present who voted and decided the innovation award of the year.
"SYNCSENSE and their exercise technology show great potential for how technology and artificial intelligence can be used in a smart way to create value for patients, hospitals, and society. It is of great importance for businesses, and thus for Denmark, if we succeed in making artificial intelligence more widespread. One can highlight the way SYNCSENSE has worked with the practical use of artificial intelligence to create direct and concrete utility value for their users. SYNCSENSE wins not only because their product very concretely solves a relevant health problem with great potential, but also because it demonstrates the potential for how technology and artificial intelligence can be used in a smart way to create value for patients, hospitals, and society."
See all 5 jury members.
"This solution is a prime example of how Virtual Reality technology can actually be designed to help inactive elderly and people with disabilities to explore and get physical stimulation. It’s pretty remarkable to see people with mobility-impaired conditions embark upon journeys while experiencing the sensation of physical activity. Not least because the virtual solution has proven to improve the well-being of users while reducing the physical workload of providers. That’s a proper life-enhancing solution."
See all 17 jury members.
“Even though VR technology is not new, it is impressive to see how it has been applied to a target group that has traditionally been difficult to engage digitally.
This VR project is an example of how an older technology can still be used innovatively to create real positive change in society. Its ability to improve the lives and well-being of older people and people with disabilities through rehabilitation makes it a highly deserving recipient.”
“SYNCSENSE wins the Social Impact prize because the solution improves the disease course/everyday life of isolated and inactive patients and citizens.”
See NHL’s team, board and partner hospitals and municipalities.
