Motivational Medicine Treats Acute and Chronic Pain through Touch
Motivational Medicine: Improving personal health and wellness
Motivational Medicine is a company designed to create innovative products and ideas to improve personal health and wellness. Benjamin Bring, DO, came up with the idea and the name for his company, Motivational Medicine, LLC when he was in his fourth year of medical school.
“As a physician, I found that there are barriers to teaching personal nutrition, fitness prescription, and preventative medicine to patients. One of the goals of our company is to help educate people on how to take care of their bodies,” said Bring, a board-certified specialist in both family and sports medicine at OhioHealth.
Motivational Medicine’s MyoGlove™ Treats Musculoskeletal Pain
MyoGlove™ is an innovative solution for medical professionals who use their hands to treat patients suffering from acute or chronic pain. The idea came to Bring from his medical training and experience as an osteopathic sports medicine physician.
“As osteopathic physicians, we are trained to use our hands to treat patients with any musculoskeletal pain. Most commonly we treat back, shoulder, hip, and neck pain,” he said.
These manipulation techniques can place considerable stress on the hands, arms, and shoulders of medical professionals who perform soft tissue manipulation on a regular basis. Over time, these providers can develop hand and wrist injuries, nerve dysfunction, and decreased ability to perform manipulation on patients.
There are currently several products that treat muscle pain including foam rollers, rolling pins, and mobility balls, but none of these allow for directly targeted treatment of the muscle pain. MyoGlove™ is different because it is attached directly to the provider’s hands.
“We believe this is a unique product,” Bring said. “It’s an athletic glove built without fingers so that the medical professional can still use their hands to diagnose muscle dysfunction. The prototype currently has three different attachments to use for specific muscle groups.”
The attachments provide a mechanical advantage—a professional product for sports doctors or physical therapists to provide a more targeted deep tissue massage without using their elbow or thumbs. Bring said that having the glove attached to the care provider’s hand preserves the human element.
“This is a revolutionary product for patients of all ages,” Bring said. “There are studies that suggest massage therapy can improve patient outcomes and patient satisfaction scores in a variety of inpatient and outpatient settings. The MyoGlove™ is a versatile product that can be used in any of these patient care settings with minimal need for formal training.
Bring envisions developing another product for everyday use at home.
OhioHealth Creates an Environment That Promotes Invention and Innovation
Through the OhioHealth Research and Innovation Institute (OHRI), OhioHealth encourages anyone on the staff who has an innovative idea to bring it forward.
As the idea progresses to a solution, the OHRI Commercialization Services office acts as a partner to help connect clinicians and associates with the right resources with expertise in healthcare technology commercialization. That support can also include funding from the OhioHealth Innovation Development Fund.
“I pitched the idea, and we received our first round of funding in 2015,” Bring said. “We used the money to develop a more refined prototype that was used by 70 health professionals over a several-month period. The feedback from this first trial was outstanding—we took the data from that user trial and are currently working on the third prototype.”
As a physician who is also an inventor and entrepreneur, Bring is philosophical about wearing such different hats.
“In medicine,” he said, “we talk about practicing growth within your scope of training. In life, it’s important to know what you know and what you don’t know. OhioHealth and Rev1 have been helpful with business development, user trials, and applying for the patent.”
Rev1 also linked Bring with a mentor. “I feel like Rev1 is invested in me as a person as well as our company. They provide guidance which is important. They are quick to ask questions. They care about me and care about the company.”
Being in a caring profession himself, that connection is something that Bring understands and is building into the culture of his company.
“I started Motivational Medicine to connect with patients to improve their personal health and wellness,” he said. “To touch is to heal. I really believe that this product can change the way that we treat acute and chronic musculoskeletal pain.”
Learn more about how Rev1 Ventures helps entrepreneurs like Dr. Bring create successful products and companies. Contact us.
