Initially motivated by a stroke in her family, Cognitive Science student Tvisha Nepani wanted to improve health outcomes for stroke patients. She developed the idea for a remote AI-powered physical therapy platform to help stroke patients recover through rehabilitation.
Known as ReMotive Health, the technology also allows patients to monitor their recovery between doctor’s visits. Nepani pitched her startup to investors at the Berkeley Accelerator and Startup Incubator in Cognitive Science’s (BASICS) Fall Pitch Day.
Nepani recently spoke to Berkeley Social Sciences about ReMotive Health’s progression and its future.
Tell me about ReMotive Health. How does it work?
Tvisha Nepani: This project started as a mix of personal experiences and a Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (SCET) class project at Berkeley. After a stroke in my family I saw firsthand that patients often face upper limb motor issues that require rehabilitation after acute care. I also realized that the physical therapy process, especially in the U.S. health care system, is very fragmented; clinicians are often overburdened by high patient volumes, making it a struggle to hold each one accountable during their treatment path. On the patient side, seeing clinicians intermittently hinders progress, often leading to recovery plateaus where full function is never restored.
When taking an engineering class at Cal, we were challenged to think of a resonant problem and build a ‘backable’ startup. I’ve always been passionate about healthcare, and by bridging that with entrepreneurship and tech, I found a way to democratize care. I pitched my idea and found a team of very diverse people within the class to build this out with, and had the opportunity to iterate on the idea since then with the help of SCET faculty mentors.
Seeing SCET faculty and startup mentors not only validate this as a critical pain point but offer to mentor me beyond the classroom was a turning point. It transformed a class project into a personal mission to ensure no stroke survivor is left with a fragmented or isolated path to full recovery.
What are some key features to a remote rehabilitation technology that benefit patients compared to onsite rehab?
Tvisha Nepani: The primary challenge in traditional physical therapy is discontinuity. Currently, patients often only perform exercises under direct clinical supervision, which limits their engagement to a few times per month. This lack of adherence and consistent movement is the single greatest barrier to recovery. ReMotive Health bridges this gap by introducing a gamified, wearable-based recovery process into the home. Unlike traditional 'paper-and-pencil' home exercise programs where clinicians rely on self-reporting, our technology aims to quantify patient progress in real-time.
What are the drawbacks?
Tvisha Nepani: The most significant hurdle in telerehabilitation isn't the hardware—it's patient adherence. Physical therapy is mentally and physically taxing; even with the best tools, maintaining the motivation to exercise at home is a major barrier. If a patient doesn't use the device, the clinical outcome is zero.
I think one of the few ideas that I've been throwing around with people that I've spoken to is: First, having a community-based feature where you have a physical therapy streak, like a reward system set into the app that incentivizes them.
Second, you can connect them with other physical therapy patients. I feel like it can be helpful for patients to build community, create a social network and see other people who are on the same recovery track. All of those features are definitely things that can definitely help address that issue, but it is something that's more downstream after the product is developed.
What’s ReMotive Health’s future?
Tvisha Nepani: Well, I think I kind of started out pretty narrow, thinking about it as something that would be helpful for stroke patients. Learning about how the business world works has certainly helped me broaden how applicable this product could be to anyone who's getting limb therapy – from athletes to any other rehab patients. That's definitely been a huge development. Learning that you can start by addressing this specific group of people and end up affecting so many more communities beyond that.
What do you aspire to do after you graduate with your degree in Cognitive Science?
Tvisha Nepani: I've been thinking about this a lot. Originally, if you'd asked me, it would have been medicine. But coming to Berkeley and being exposed to the tech and entrepreneurship ecosystem really shifted my perspective – I realized there's a lot more potential to scale ideas in healthcare, and to reach more people, if you work within a startup rather than through a traditional clinical path.
I'm also genuinely drawn to the fast-paced, high-growth environment that startups tend to have. So right now, it's something I'm really passionate about, and if there's a clear path to make that happen after I graduate, that's where I want to be.
