iShoe in the running for Rice Business Plan prize

iShoe, which won 8th Continent’s 2008 Business Plan Competition, was featured in Fortune Small Business this week as a top contender for the Rice Business Plan Competition, which awards $800,000 in seed money to promising start-ups.

The team from Cambridge, Mass.,  captured our prize – then called the Lunar Ventures Business Plan Competition – by modifying  an electronic insole developed to monitor balance changes as astronauts adjust to gravity. iShoe reimagined the insole as a medical device that  helps physical therapists monitor  a patient’s gait. Nine million seniors at risk of falling form a key market, along with stroke patients, accident victims, wounded Iraq veterans and others learning how to walk again.

The key, the iShoe team says, is to diagnose balance issues before a crippling fall occurs. Says writer Rose Fox: “IShoe plans to manufacture free-standing and mobile devices that detect balance deterioration, allowing those at risk to receive treatment to correct balance problems before a life-threatening fall. The team’s product will be an affordable bathroom scale that calculates weight and body mass index and allows users to track balance changes over time. After that, iShoe plans to expand into shoes and insoles.”

Find out more about iShoe at www.ishoeinsole.com.