Walk With Path: Creating Simple Solutions for Positive Impact

Walking steadily is crucial for mobility independence. However, due to old-age, neurological diseases or some other incidents, human mobility can be greatly affected. Helping such people regain mobility and walk with confidence is Walk With Path, a multi-award-winning company focused on injury prevention, improved mobility and user-centered design.

Based out of the UK, Walk with Path Founder and Managing Director, Lise Pape, shares the details, inspiration and the future of the company.

Please brief our audience about your company, its values, vision, and mission.

Walk With Path was founded out of personal experience as my father has Parkinson’s disease and I wanted to create simple solutions that make a difference whilst helping people stay active and mobile. This has driven our vision as we believe in enhancing human life and shaping the future world. Our mission is to create inclusive innovations to make a positive impact.

What are the prominent solutions and products, that make your company stand out from the competition?

Path Finder is a wearable tech device. It creates visual cues on the ground using laser projections, in an automated and hands-free way. Path Finder has improved older people’s in- and out-of-home mobility globally for over 1000 direct end users and many others indirectly.

We are currently developing our second device, Path Feel. Path Feel is an insole that provides vibrational feedback to the soles of people at risk of falls, such as those with peripheral neuropathy, who are unable to feel the ground properly due to a sensory deficit, or those with general balance issues. By amplifying the sense of touch of the feet to the ground, users are able to identify accurately when their feet touch the ground, thereby reducing the sense of imbalance as well as incidence of falls.

Being an experienced leader, what is your opinion on the adaptation of newer technological developments to sustain business competency?

I think it is critical for all businesses to keep abreast of technological advancements so that products can be improved in line with innovation. It is also important to stay in close touch with end users, so that there is a constant reinforcement that the product meets an actual need.

Taking into consideration, the current pandemic, and its impact on global economies, how are you driving your organization to sustain operations and ensuring safety of your employees at the same time?

Our product development is at a crucial point and it can be challenging to work remotely and have the same level of collaboration as a team and resolve issues effectively. However, the health and safety of our team is the top priority so we make sure to follow all the government guidance and have frank and open discussions about it, and how we feel as a team as the situation changes.

What do you think could be the future of Telehealth technologies and solutions market post the COVID-19 pandemic?

I think Telehealth will continue growing. Covid has allowed healthcare systems the opportunity to realise that Telehealth can work and it has truly spiralled its adoption. This is an exciting change, and I think that it will also fuel innovation in the area.

What would be your advice to the emerging entrepreneurs aspiring to enter into the healthcare industry?

Healthcare is a challenging area. it requires the alignment of several elements to become successful, including engineering, regulatory and reimbursement. The timeframes are long and I would say that healthcare requires a lot of patience. It is also a market driven by economics as a priority over patient benefit, which can be disheartening.

Entrepreneurs looking to enter healthcare need to be aware of the timeframes and hurdles in the market, and the necessity of funding to support these steps. However, saying that I realise that perhaps I would have hesitated to enter the market if I had known it all upfront. Sometimes it’s better to discover obstructions as you move along, as they will seem more possible to overcome.

Where do you envision your organization to be in the long run and what are your future goals?

We aim to become the mobility company of choice. We are at a crossroads, where we are also seeking to develop products outside the medical area to support and impact a wider population. Our future goal is to become the go-to expert on mobility within the medical field and of course the other area that we are developing, which I cannot discuss as of yet.

About the Founder

Lise Pape started exploring issues of daily life with Parkinson’s and multiple sclerosis in 2014, whilst studying Innovation Design Engineering in London, at Imperial College and the Royal College of Art. She was driven by personal experience as her father has Parkinson’s disease and she wanted to create simple solutions that make a difference, whilst having no side-effects. Having a close family member with a movement disorder is incredibly frustrating, and seeing the difference her work can have on people’s lives is what drives her and the team to innovate.

Source: https://insightscare.com/walk-with-path-creating-simple-solutions-for-positive-impact/

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