Oro Muscles: A helping hand with Tanya Colonna

In this exclusive interview, Maria Debrincat sits down with Tanya Colonna, CEO of Oro Muscles and Med-Tech World’s first Pitch winner, as she muscles in on her product and its benefits in improving training, rehabilitation and pushing the healthcare industry towards preventative care and telemedicine

Can you tell us more about your product and the benefits it has in aiding athletes and patients with movement disorders and Parkinson’s?

One out of five soccer players will injure their hamstrings each season, Manchester United pays >£15M to injured players’ salaries in one season, and we believe this is because of a lack of information during training. Sports scientists and coaches have many advanced tools at their disposal, but nothing that can help them understand what is happening at the local muscle level. We provide performance coaches and physical therapists information about specific muscles to help them adjust training progressions to athletes’ personalized needs for their specific sport and use this information to optimize performance, training with injury prevention in mind. Our data and analysis have saved Olympic teams over 30% of the time in the weight room while making them perform better- we have two athletes we work with competing now in the Beijing 2022 Olympics.

The same technology can provide a selection of the same outputs as a >€200k motion capture lab. These outputs are the gold standard for assessing movement disorders, such as Parkinson’s, but time in the lab is expensive, requires the space occupied by two hospital rooms, requires an expert to operate and analyze the outcomes, can have >2 week waiting times, and it can take weeks to analyze the results.

One in four people with Parkinson’s is misdiagnosed. With our device, we analyze movement in a more natural environment, at a fraction of the cost, with a low-profile device, without the need for an expert to operate it, and we provide actionable analysis outputs within 24 hours, leading to quicker and more effective diagnostic outcomes and we are working with the #2 rehabilitation hospital globally, the UMCG, to validate our device in this context and plan to submit for publication this year. This is a very scalable device.

Can you briefly explain the process involved in manifesting your current project to its full potential?

Developing and providing value in each market involves focus and strategically timed expansion. Right now, we’re focusing on elite athletics, but our validation strategy doubles as we build up data for future regulatory approval and expansion into sports medicine and general rehabilitation.

Oro Muscles has secured a worldwide exclusive licensing deal with trusted, medical EMG suppliers. Can you tell us more about this deal?

We are the only company legally allowed to use the best sensor system on the market containing EMG + IMU in the field of elite sports and rehabilitation.

This year you took home Med-Tech World’s first pitch winner Award, how crucial is this award to a growing brand like yours?

We’re at a crucial inflection point in our company’s development – research, development, and hundreds of customer interviews have come together into a product that has proven utility in multiple markets. Taking home the Med-Tech World’s pitch award shows that our vision resonates with experts in our target markets and that we are on the road to a truly scalable, revolutionary solution.

What makes your company different from other medical brands?

The same fundamental technology that we have developed can optimize both elite sports and rehabilitation. This means that, unlike most medical brands, we don’t have to wait until we achieve regulatory approval and figure out reimbursement before we can generate revenue. We’re generating revenue now and reinvesting that to expand into medical, meaning we reduce the risk for our investors.

What are the goals you’ve set for yourselves in 2022 and how are you planning on getting there? Are there any challenges you expect to face in the coming year?

In 2022, we will raise funds to expand our team and continue iterating our product as we learn from our growing customer base about what they want to see and how we can more smoothly fit into their workflow. The most challenging part of this will be to make our marketing as cool as our product- we’re completely redesigning our website and our approach to social media; there is so much value packed into this technology, and we need to figure out how to quickly and clearly express this to the right people.

About Med-Tech World:

It is now estimated that the global digital health market will increase to around $640 billion by 2026. Through our expertise coupled with optimized networking, we will ensure that both investors and startups are on the ground floor of this health revolution. The event which is organized and curated alongside a team of doctors, attracts legislators and policymakers, medical professionals, and investors from across the world, addresses the opportunities and challenges driving this million-dollar forum.