Good vibrations for HealthTech

Imagine a world where you could be rehabilitated from physical health conditions in the comfort of your own home. No drugs. No appointments. On-demand. This is the long-term vision for Dr Dianne Jones and co-founder Steve Leftly for their easy-to-use, wearable technology Myovolt, vibration therapy engineered for muscle rehab and recovery.

It’s a health technology that is already aiding recovery for elite athletes. “But it’s designed for everybody,” Dianne says. “The Myovolt customer is someone physically active who may be carrying a few niggles or an old sports injury and need some help to keep muscle soreness and stiffness at bay.”

Dianne certainly knows what she’s talking about. Twenty years ago, she started Sentrix in the UK and developed wearable tech, specialising in electronic textiles. Her impressive portfolio includes high-tech projects for massive global companies, including Apple, NASA, and BMW. In 2012, Adidas, who were sponsoring the British Olympic cycling team, approached Sentrix to develop a fabric technology that could keep cyclists’ muscles at an optimum temperature in between warming up and their race. This technology became known as ‘hot pants’ and delivered a 10 per cent performance gain. The significant result was noticed, and soon Sentrix was supplying to the Aussie team as well.

Hot pants, though, required huge batteries, so consumer friendly they were not. Now based in New Zealand, Dianne and Steve started working together on new technology to help anyone perform better in their daily lives, not just elite athletes. Musculoskeletal conditions are now the leading cause of pain and disability worldwide, and their work has been focused on developing wearable technology that could solve movement health issues in the wider population.

After collaborating with Dr Daryl Cochrane, an expert in vibration therapy in sports performance at Massey University, they became Myovolt and, in 2020, were finalists in ChristchurchNZ’s HealthTech challenge, which involved completing an eight-week accelerator programme.

Te Ōhaka – innovation and growth centre has been Myovolt’s home for the three years since, but on June 1st, their six-person team is moving to the new Health Technology Centre at Te Matatiki Toi Ora The Arts Centre, where they’ll be immersed in a community with other medical device, digital and earlystage health technology companies. This is the first co-working space focused on HealthTech in Aotearoa and is designed to provide connection, inspiration and support to early-stage companies, a move Dianne is very excited about.

“We love a space where people do lots of interesting and different things. There’s a lot to be gained from the cross-fertilisation of ideas rather than being siloed in your own office,” Dianne says.

Myovolt has already ticked some business validation boxes a lot of start-ups haven’t. They’re an FDA-registered product, patented, and have research partnerships all around the world. So, what’s next? A yet-to-beannounced partnership with a big US company will take Myovolt global. “It will give us the ability to open up some big retail doors that we can’t do on our own from New Zealand,” Dianne says.