Yang considered creating a surgically implanted device or one that works in tandem with medication. After sensing anxiety from a patient’s family prior to surgery, he pivoted to try to create a device that was as noninvasive as possible, landing on the no-incision-necessary design of the Felix.
To use the device, a patient straps on a daily disposable sensor to their wrist after taking a quick digital measurement. Then, they cover the device with the battery pack.
The stimulation needed to treat tremors varies from moment to moment. The device streams data sensed in the patient’s tremor to the digital cloud via a cell phone app, Yang said. That allows AI to analyze the tremor and adjust stimulation parameters in real time.
The device delivers mild electric stimulation through several peripheral nerves stretching from the hand to the central nervous system. This stimulation changes the activities in a patient’s sensory and neural pathways to provide tremor relief.
“It’s really a communication channel between your nervous system and the artificial intelligence,” Yang said, “and they’re together trying to reduce the tremor.”
A demonstration of a fitting of the Felix wristband for treating tremors uses a phone to measure the points that the wristband needs to properly align with nerves. (Renée Jones Schneider/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Depending on the level of the stimulation, some patients may feel a little tingling or numbness, said Dr. Rajesh Pahwa, a University of Kansas Medical Center professor who was an investigator on the study. Compared to another device on a market, which stimulates for about 40 minutes and provides a few hours of relief, patients wear the Felix much longer, Pahwa said.