Sarah Pack /MUSC Office of Public Relations
Nancy Bunch used "Duck Duck Punch" as part of her stroke recovery therapy.
Clemson University
Nancy Bunch said that when she suffered a stroke, she lost the ability to lift one of her arms.
The simplest of tasks, such as picking up a pencil, were but a memory. Then a therapist asked Bunch to try using a new video game, “Duck Duck Punch,” as part of her recovery.
She punched virtual rubber ducks off the screen to relearn how to extend her arm. Within a week, she was once again able to pick up a pencil. Just over a year later, Bunch drove herself to the grocery store.
“This really needs to be in hospitals all around the country,” Bunch said. “For me, it represented hope – hope for the hopeless. I am so thankful.”
“Duck Duck Punch” is the product of Recovr, a company that started as a research project in Clemson University’s College of Engineering and Science and at the Medical University of South Carolina.
The company’s founders, Austen Hayes and Larry Hodges, said it could be only a matter of months before the game becomes a part of patient therapy nationwide.
Recovr has $750,000 in start-up capital from Concepts to Companies and is seeking FDA approval to market the game as a medical device.
“We’re on the cusp of something big,” said Hayes. “There is a $17-billion stroke rehabilitation market in the U.S. alone. The need for this kind of therapy is expected to more than double by 2030, according to the National Stroke Association.”
Almost 800,000 strokes happen each year in the United States. More than 7 million survivors live with long-term stroke disability, the vast majority suffering arm-movement impairment.
“Duck Duck Punch” is in trials in two clinics and two hospitals across South Carolina. Tests have shown as much as 15-percent improvement in arm mobility in one week of using the game.
With “Duck Duck Punch,” therapy becomes a game that patients want to play instead of a chore that needs to be done.
Patients stand or sit in front of a TV or computer, and rubber ducks go by on the screen like a carnival game. When patients reach out, a virtual arm on the screen knocks down the ducks. Patients earn points for each duck they knock down.
The game can be played in hospitals and clinics, or sent home with the patient.
“That’s key,” Hayes said. “You have to follow up with daily therapy in the home. On average, pilot participants in the home are using this 49 minutes a day. It has just blown away therapists that patients are following up on their own between therapy sessions.”
Bunch, of Eutawville, said that she doesn’t usually consider herself competitive, but the spirit rose in her when she played “Duck Duck Punch.”
“It’s like mind over matter,” she said. “It’s amazing what your brain can do even though you don’t think you can do it.”
A Microsoft Kinect tracks patient movements, so no controller is needed. Patients can pick the skin tone of their virtual arm – many prefer green – and the game’s theme, Hodges said.
“We’ve got Wild West Ducks, we’ve got Seascape Ducks, and we have everybody’s favorite, which is Ducks in Space,” he said.
The game can also be customized according to patient ability. In the setup, patients extend their arms as far as they can. The game makes up the difference so that patients with very limited motion can still play.
Therapists can use “Duck Duck Punch” to track patients’ progress and provide analytic data, which is important under the Affordable Care Act, Hodges said.
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