"Changing people’s lives is a great thing. It’s what tech should be about."
So says Michael Macknight, co-founder of Dunedin-based success story ADInstruments, a global company which provides computer-based data acquisition systems for research and education.
It is the sort of business that is regularly approached by individual researchers claiming it is "the new big thing". But when Mr Macknight got chatting to Rowan Ellis, he instantly knew a dream that Mr Ellis had, involving what he described as a "truth machine for muscles", was real — "not some random idea no-one would want".
The story of MR EMG, a startup founded by Mr Macknight and his wife Kelly, and Mr Ellis and his wife Kylie, is a quintessential southern tale of Kiwi ingenuity, and the ease of forging relationships in Dunedin.
The two wives knew each other and the couples’ children went to school together. At a family evening for parents, Mr Ellis and Mr Macknight were chatting about what each other did.
Mr Ellis started as a remedial massage therapist 35 years ago and realised the limitations of hands-on treatment. He is the founder of Body Synergy, a gym where exercise is used to treat long-term health and wellbeing.
For more than 30 years, he has assessed and treated clients as a manual and movement clinician.
He had been using surface electromyography — a technique in which electrodes are placed on the skin overlying a muscle to detect the electrical activity of the muscle — in his practice for exercise rehabilitation.
He wanted to share the approach with other practitioners but research devices were not necessarily built for use in clinical situations.
He talked to Mr Macknight about the possibility of developing a system that clinicians could use to measure muscle output.
"We could do that," Mr Macknight responded.
A few conversations later and the two couples ventured down the path to develop an easy-to-use, affordable muscle sensor.
Mr Ellis’ expertise in musculoskeletal analysis and exercise prescription was combined with state-of-the-art wireless EMG recording techniques to create a tool to support functional movement screening and exercise prescription, encouraging client accountability and retention.
Three years later and they are ready to go to market. The name MR EMG was suggested by Mrs Macknight — the letters M and R standing for Michael and Rowan, although it has quickly been dubbed Mr EMG.
Mr Macknight said it was not magic, rather it was just basic science.
"Just measuring something, making it visible and everything follows from there."
ADI was all about measuring the same sort of signals — albeit a much wider range — in a research environment, so he was very familiar with the tech needed.
In the tech space, it was also a case of "right place at the right time". Technology was so much better with the likes of Bluetooth and tablets. People knew about tech now and it was no longer daunting.
Last year, they had been introducing MR EMG to clinicians and had attended physiotherapy, sports science and exercise conferences.
Those who had seen it were "blown away" but they needed to be educated in its use and it had to be presented in a non-threatening manner, Mr Ellis said.
Previous EMG systems had been very complex and could only be used in shielded rooms — the signal could not tell the difference between wiring in the walls and the muscles — so the experience for clinicians had not been great.
Mr Ellis said it was a platform that could bring more clinicians together, citing one of his clients whose data, with their permission, he was sharing with their chiropractor and physiotherapist — "and everyone is on the same page".
"It’s a very nice platform to bring clinicians together to share their expertise and everyone wins from their knowledge.
"We can go on and view objective data and make informed decisions from there."
It was hard to fix what could not be measured and applications for the device were wide-ranging; from dentistry to strength and conditioning.
Mr Macknight said the technology was already changing lives through getting people moving again and that was "a wonderful thing".
Hearing the stories was often emotional and rewarding.
"That’s the objective; help as many people as we can."
It was also used as biofeedback — the device was synced to an iPad and they could see whether they were using the correct muscle or not, and that feedback could be used to retrain people to do the right thing. It also kept them accountable with their exercise.
One client, referred to Body Synergy by an orthopaedic surgeon, had a frozen shoulder. By measuring the muscle outputs and doing exercise rehab, an 867% improvement in muscle function when shrugging his shoulders was measured in 18 days. He was now back doing his job without pain.
Mr Ellis said there was a "huge need" for science in the exercise world. He was concerned about "good looking influencers with good physiques making quotes about exercise that are terribly false".
This year was expected to be "hugely popular" for wearable devices in the exercise scene. People were already measuring the likes of their blood pressure and heart rate so the next step was measuring what their muscles were doing.
In New Zealand, particularly with ACC, there was a treatment-based model. That was transitioning to an exercise rehabilitative model.
There was a recognised need for exercise rehab which was where EMG came in. It encouraged confidence with exercise, and pain could be managed in conjunction with a practitioner.
Mr Macknight said the ambition for MR EMG was global — "the same need is everywhere, clinicians have the same problems" — but they did not want to bring a product to market, get success and not be able to support it.
So they had put effort into making the product, getting the stock and they were now learning how to sell it — initially in New Zealand — and going to market.
Already there had been some local sales, and it was being tried out in the University of Otago’s sports science department, and also at Otago Polytechnic.
Mr Macknight said one of the great things about Dunedin was the local talent and accessibility to that talent, including nearby electronics designer Kamahi Electronics. Where possible, they had endeavoured to use that local talent.
Mr Ellis described MR EMG as "an incredible process", and said the partners all worked well together.
What Mr Macknight particularly liked was how Mr Ellis was using the technology himself day-to-day so it was not like trying to imagine a solution for a third party. Clinicians could also use it on themselves as they learned about the product.
Mr Ellis would eventually like MR EMG to be his full-time focus. As part of that transition, his goal was to share his expertise with EMG and empower clinicians.
He believed the "ripple effect on the pond" through its use could be enormous.
"I hope it’s so good it gets copied."
