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The ComeBack Mobility Smart Crutch Tips that attach to crutches and canes to alert users recovering from an injury if they are applying too much weight to walking aids. Credit: Vincent Reyna for the San Antonio Report<\/p>\nIn 2019, Ukrainian entrepreneur and Muay Thai fighter Ilya Popov blocked a high kick in the final round of a kickboxing match in Thailand. The kick shattered the radial bone in Popov\u2019s forearm and disrupted his semi-professional fighting career.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Popov, then 30 years old, had just sold his first startup business, a European booking site that helps athletes book accommodations in different languages. Back in Ukraine recovering from surgery, Popov planned his next venture.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His initial idea was for a medical device that could more precisely guide recovery from arm injuries such as his own. But a surgeon he interviewed steered him in another direction where innovation was lacking: lower-limb injuries.<\/p>\n
The doctor explained that patients recovering from leg and hip injuries are often prescribed crutches and weight-bearing protocols that are difficult to follow. Apply 20% of your weight to your injured side for several weeks, for example.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only way physical therapists explain to patients how to do that is step on bathroom scale, try to remember that feeling, and walk like this, which is impossible,\u201d Popov said.<\/p>\n
So Popov came up with Smart Crutch Tips: sensors that can be attached to the end of crutches or a cane, able to measure the amount of pressure a patient is applying with each step. The device connects to a mobile app, which tells the patient when they\u2019re stepping too lightly or too hard.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought, here is an unmet need and opportunity,\u201d Popov said. \u201cI\u2019m gonna sell it and become rich.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ComeBack Mobility Smart Crutch Tips that attach to crutches and canes to alert users recovering from an injury if they are applying too much weight to walking aids. Credit: Vincent Reyna for the San Antonio Report<\/p>\n
Nearly seven years later, however, Popov is still struggling to turn it into a business. Before hospitals will use it, he has to prove to insurers that it will save them money. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s part of what makes medtech \u201can inherently more complicated system companies have to deal with,\u201d said BioMedSA President Heather Hanson.<\/p>\n
Popov is at least glad to be in good company. He moved to San Antonio in 2025 after living in New York City for three years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel here, a lot of support,\u201d he said. \u201c(Other startups) understand my pain, because they are also in this field and they know how difficult it is and how long it takes.\u201d<\/p>\n
By 2021, Popov had raised investments, built prototypes of his device and founded his startup, ComeBack Mobility. He recalls pitching his device to an orthopedic surgeon operating in Manhattan.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you guys have patients who you prescribe partial weight-bearing prescriptions?\u201d Popov asked the surgeon.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a medical device that is clinically validated, and that can help your patients follow your prescriptions,\u201d Popov said. \u201cDo you guys want your patients to be able to follow your prescriptions?\u201d<\/p>\n
The surgeon\u2019s response: no.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf my patients really follow my prescriptions, maybe the clinical outcomes would be worse,\u201d the surgeon told Popov. \u201cWe don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
The surgeon\u2019s point, Popov said, was that nobody really knows whether the standard prescriptions are right. The studies behind weight-bearing protocols had no reliable way to measure if patients were actually following the guidance.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IlyaPopov_ComebackMobility_MuyThaiInjury.jpg\")
Ilya Popov recovering from surgery after breaking the radial bone in his forearm during a Muay Thai fight in Thailand in 2019. Credit: Courtesy \/ Ilya Popov<\/p>\n
\u201cI just spent $3 million and three years of my life to develop the device, to pass FDA inspection, come up with this quality management system \u2026 (for) a device that nobody needed,\u201d Popov recalled thinking around that time.<\/p>\n
Getting weight bearing wrong has real consequences, explained Dr. Ravi Karia, chief of the Orthopaedic Trauma Division at UT Health San Antonio.<\/p>\n
Too much weight following surgery can loosen or break the plates and screws holding fractured bone in place, which can mean another costly surgery. Too little pressure can lead to muscle wasting and an unnecessarily long recovery, especially in older patients.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of (the weight-bearing protocols) aren\u2019t based on great science,\u201d Karia said, \u201cbecause there\u2019s so many variables.\u201d<\/p>\n
Popov realized that his device could help resolve the surgeon\u2019s uncertainty. He also realized that he would need a lot more data to make his device marketable in the U.S.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo develop a new device, it\u2019s the easiest part,\u201d he said. \u201cThe hardest part is to collect statistically and clinically significant evidence to prove \u2014 to convince an old man who treats patients 40 years with this way. Now some guy from Ukraine came here and said, \u2018Hey, surgeons, now you should treat your patients in a different way.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Proving it<\/p>\n
Popov and his team dug into the research behind bone healing and eventually connected with UT Health\u2019s Vaida Glatt, director of research in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. Glatt has published research on how bone tissue heals with loading, and how to measure it. She\u2019s now the chief scientific officer for ComeBack Mobility.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Using CT scans and computer modeling, Popov and Glatt have modeled how much weight promotes healing and how much risks breaking a screw.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Ilya-Popov-2026-8.jpg\")
Popov commented on the long process of getting a device like the Smart Crutch Tips past testing and results to prove its worth. Credit: Vincent Reyna for the San Antonio Report<\/p>\n