New Brunswick Entrepreneur Aims To Transform Physical Therapy With “First-Of-Its-Kind’ AI Platform
FREDERICTON- Pascal McCarthy, a former University of New Brunswick master of science and engineering student, has won Mitacs’ Change Agent Entrepreneur Award for the AI platform he created to help trainers and therapists with their clients.
McCarthy said his company, Parados Cerebral Solutions Inc, helps trainers and therapists by making training and therapy for patients more accessible, efficient, and enjoyable.
The “first-of-its-kind” AI platform uses the same motion-tracking technology as Google Meet or Zoom to pick up a client’s silhouette and blur the background.
“We use that to predict where your joints are and then we visualize you so, based on the video, we can recreate you in 3D like a video game character,” McCarthy explained. “That makes it easy for therapists to identify discrepancies and how they think you should be moving, or how they think you should be mobile, or how your posture is.”
Therapists can then measure and compare the data they received.
The whole goal for trainers and therapists is to automate their assessment. Therapists and trainers will ask clients to do a series of moves so they can assess the client right from the screen. The platform makes assessments Covid-friendly, concussion-friendly, geriatric-friendly, and all-around more accessible.
McCarthy said the idea for the platform came from his own experience.
“From my personal experience, both as an athlete and coach, I can also see that people treat the symptoms, not the root cause,” he told Huddle.
McCarthy did both his undergraduate and master’s degree at UNB and spent his years there playing sports and experiencing recurring injuries. The focus of his master’s project was how to better predict, prevent, and monitor head impacts and concussions. McCarthy said he knows people who have had concussions and have had to drop out of school so he had an interest in the field of concussions before doing his master’s.
After his father had a brain aneurysm, he became curious about brain injuries and how they’re handled. While studying for his master’s, he realized he could help people with technology.
McCarthy said the benefit of the platform is that it allows trainers and therapists to spend less time doing repetitive tasks like assessments. It also eliminates schedule conflicts, since clients don’t need to meet in person.
“[They] would be able to spend more time adding value, which would be interpreting the results and making recommendations based on their expertise, and less time doing repetitive tasks.”
For users, the platform can increase performance and reduce the risk of injuries. It’s also accessible and users can see and measure their progress, which McCarthy said helps with motivation.
The platform also offers a report to let clients know why they are doing the exercises and how they are going to help their injuries.
While he was an intern with Mitacs, McCarthy researched different factors that play into the risk of head injury. He worked under his supervisor and reported his findings back to the Concussion Legacy Foundation.
He was awarded one of The 2022 Mitacs Entrepreneur Awards, the Change Agent Entrepreneur Award, on June 2. He said winning this award means he is headed in the right direction and it gives him hope.
“[The research] has some purpose and relevancy to some major problems or some major things that can be tackled and improved, not only in personal training but in the healthcare system.”
Parados Cerebral Solutions has a handful of customers right now and is working with early adopters in the National Hockey League, Major League Baseball and the Professional Golfer’s Association.
McCarthy said the company is starting with sports performance because he is familiar with it. But the long-term goal is to get into the medical realm. McCarthy said he wants to help people not only with how their move their head and neck but help prevent, monitor, and track head impacts.
“Right now, we’re mostly looking at physical movements. But my hypothesis really is at some point we can look at how someone moves and anticipate how they’re feeling, like their mental states — that’s the direction I want to go.”
McCarthy said that by working with the Concussion Legacy Foundation he has seen a lot of sports players who have suffered severe injuries. He wants to work towards not only helping people’s performance but also improving their quality of life.
“That’s really the direction I’m heading in the future, combining software and hardware to really have an advantage and being able to take a holistic view of how people perform, and performance and wellness, because I really think that they go hand-in-hand, and so do physical movements and brain health,” he said.
Jessica Saulnier is a summer intern for Huddle. Send her your story tips: [email protected].