The Value of Access: Using the ReWalk Exoskeleton to regain walking access to everyday activities and terrains, including stairs and curbs

Elevating health and wellness for individuals with SCI by enabling more opportunities to experience the benefits of walking.

Regular, consistent use of an exoskeleton to achieve functional walking during everyday activities has been demonstrated to have a significant impact on the many chronic health complications that typically follow a spinal cord injury. Some of these benefits include improved spasticity, improved pain management, and improved bowel function, among others.^1-8 Like any other vehicle of wellness, it is the regular usage that is the key component to maintaining the desired outcomes. To that end ReWalk Robotics has made it a priority to aximize the opportunities available for ReWalkers to use their exoskeleton, by enabling function in a wide array of desired use environments, now including environments containing stairs or curbs.

"Since my regular use of the ReWalk, I no longer take any pain meds or daily spasticity medicine. While using ReWalk, I am able to stay physically active and gain better sleep."
- Ashley Barnes, ReWalker since 2015

Access to ascending and descending stairs and curbs has been available to users in Europe since initial CE clearance, and real-world data from a cohort of 47 European users throughout a period of over 7 years and consisting of over 18,000 stair steps was collected to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of this feature and support the FDA submission.

In a recent poll of US-based ReWalk users who did not currently have access to stair function in their exoskeleton, nearly 80% reported that having that access would result in an increase of the number of places they could access and an anticipated frequency in device use.⁹ This has also been seen anecdotally in terms of device utilization rates between the US and Europe⁸.

To summarize, increased access to varied use environments enables increased dosage of functional ambulation and this provides more opportunities to achieve the clinical and wellness benefits associated with functional ambulation programs. ReWalk Robotics is proud to be able to introduce this new feature to the US Market to help users expand their options to participate in ambulatory activities in locations containing stairs or curbs, and increase their opportunities to experience the benefits of walking. We look forward to seeing all of our ReWalkers as they #TakeTheNextStep!

If you or someone you know could benefit from personal exoskeleton technology, please contact us for more information at rewalk.com/take-the-stairs.

1. Asselin et al., Arch Phys Med Rehab (2021)
2. Gorman et al., J Clin Med (2021)
3. Duddy et al., Sensors (2021)
4. Shackleton et al., J Rehab Med (2019)
5. Juszczak et al., Topics Spin Cord Inj Rehab (2018)
6. Faulkner et al., Journ Spinal Cord Med (2021)
7. Knezevic et al., Arch Phys Med Rehab (2021)
8. ReWalk user survey, 2022 N=41
9. Data on file, 2021