FDI Perspective: ReWalk Robotics

October, 2021

The Israeli company ReWalk Robotics recently opened an office in Berlin. It uses cutting-edge robotics technology to assist patients with lower limb disabilities.

With a product that was designed in Israel, ReWalk Robotics saw lucrative new opportunities open up in 2018 when its Personal 6.0 Exoskeleton system was listed in Germany’s catalogue of therapeutic appliances (Hilfsmittelverzeichnis) of the National Association of statutory Health Insurance Funds.

ReWalk is a wearable exoskeleton with motorized hips and knees that helps paraplegic people walk again.

©  picture alliance/empics/Joe Giddens

In practice, that meant health insurance companies in the country were able to cover the cost for this innovative assistance for patients with lower limb disabilities. Not long after, the company began to sign supply contracts with many of Germany’s 105 leading health insurers, and it has now opened an office in Berlin.

The exoskeleton, which uses state-of-the-art robotics and computer systems to help people with paralysis, is the first such device to be made available to German patients on prescription. The company also has a more lightweight device, the ReStore, which is intended to help people who have lost the use of limbs after a stroke to walk again. The product is also available in the US.

1st

exoskeleton to receive FDA clearance: ReWalk Personal 6.0 Exoskeleton

from 2018

the costs of the exoskeleton have been covered by German health insurers

52

training centers in Germany – more than in any other European country