The Medical and Dental Device Patenting Blog

There is a famous expression that “youth is wasted on the young,” but whoever coined this term did not account for the amazing exploits of a young female Violinist from Minnesota who has set out to change the world of regenerative medicine with her two recent medical device patents.

Sarah Betts journey began at age 3, where she showed a remarkable aptitude for music, particularly the violin.   Misfortune struck several years later at age nine, when she was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis, a condition that usually only afflicts those much older in age.

This terrible disease causes chronic pain and discomfort in the joint areas and is a growing phenomenon the world over.  The young musician refused to allow this malady – intensely concentrated in the wrist and hands – from her pursuit of perfecting the violin.

She bravely played on.

In her formative years after the initial diagnosis, she observed something odd which doctors seemed to have missed. The more she played, the less swelling her left hand displayed. This is the one that presses down on the strings while the right orchestrated the bow. She applied more strength and dexterity to the left hand, which was somehow minimizing the effects of arthritis.

The aha moment motivated her to develop an orthopedic exercise tool using recycled violin strings that users can press down on top of a 3D printed based.  According to Sarah, just 10 minutes of exercise per day greatly offsets the pain attached to arthritis.

“One lady, she could barely open her hand. Now, she’s been using it for about a year and a half, and I mean, she can move her hand,” Sarah said.

Sarah then went about securing two patents and one trademark for her promising medical device, ViEx®, which is now being trialed in several orthopedic practices.

Sarah also conducted a scientific study and designed an exercise protocol to evaluate patients utilizing the ViEx®. Results demonstrated 95% of participants improved in grip strength, 95% improved in hand function, and 70% improved in joint pain after using the ViEx®

Quite amazingly, the simple device only costs $3 to produce and she thinks she can get this down even more with some creative tweaks.

Now eighteen or thereabouts, Sarah was recently selected to play the final upper level solo at the Minnesota Statewide Graduation which is widely attended by musicians, faculty, family, friends and the public.

See in her action below!

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