History

In 1997 Orthopedic surgeon and Professor Paul Ackermann started his research on how the nervous system regulates vital functions, such as pain, healing and blood flow, in the human body.

Dr. Ackermann 2005 found that non-pharmacological blood clot prophylaxis using intermittent pneumatic compressions (IPC) devices increased blood flow through activation of the nervous system.

In 2015 he found IPC to prevent blood clots in patients outside the hospital. However, the non-mobile configuration, including a noisy compressor, rendered the compliance to the IPC devices to be very low outside of the hospitals.

Because of all this, Dr. Ackermann 2015 started research on neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES), which at the time also was hampered by non-mobile devices as well as treatment-discomfort, but which had the potential for further miniaturization and integration into garments that could be worn every day for maximal compliance.

In 2019-2020 Drs. Robin Juthberg and Johanna Flodin started their PhD studies with Dr. Ackermann as their supervisor, and together the team acknowledged the importance of using so called motor points on the skin to enable energy efficient and comfortable NMES. At the time, motor point searches could only be conducted by trained personal with special equipment. The team started researching the possibility for an automated motor point search, and in the fall of 2020 a proof-of-concept prototype was presented to Karolinska Institutet (KI) Innovations, which granted support to file a patent-application for the invention.

With the support of KI Innovations, in the fall of 2021, the company Matrix Muscle Support AB/Ltd. (MMS) was founded. The same year, one patient who unfortunately suffered a blood clot, contacted Dr. Ackermann to discuss the possibility of improving blood clot prophylaxis following lower limb injuries. The patient, Fredrik Magnusson who happened to be a CEO of an innovation company and the former global director of brand, design and experiences of Ericsson, got so intrigued that he decided to invest in MMS. Fredrik would later lead the development of the first “Matrix patch”, i.e. the interface that delivers the NMES treatment to the user.