BCW WIN Enables Local Health Tech Breakthrough

The Westchester Innovation Network (WIN), an initiative of the Business Council of Westchester (BCW), is proud to announce the successful outcome of a research project between CatchU® and BCW Member Burke Rehabilitation Hospital in White Plains.

JET Worldwide Enterprises Inc. (JET), a startup company developing CatchU received the top $10,000 grant from the BCW in 2022.  Dr. Jeannette R. Mahoney, founder of JET immediately decided that this grant money would be put to excellent use by directing these funds towards commencement of an investigator-initiated clinical trial in collaboration with Burke and their Chief Medical Officer Dr. Mooyeon Oh-Park. The BCW WIN’s commitment to fostering new ideas, driving research and discovery, and cultivating job growth in Westchester County made this collaboration and opportunity possible.

A recent report published in the journal Brain Sciences highlights the promising results of this collaboration. The study investigated CatchU’s novel digital health app, designed to measure visual-somatosensory integration (VSI) in clinical settings. VSI is crucial for everyday tasks like walking and maintaining balance, and impairments in VSI have been linked to adverse clinical outcomes, including increased risk of falls and cognitive decline in older adults.

The research compared VSI using the CatchU app to VSI measured from a well-established laboratory instrument, the “tristimulator,” to determine reliability in capturing VSI using a smartphone. Fifty adults aged 65 and above completed reaction time tests using both methods at Burke.

The findings were compelling: CatchU reliably captured visual-somatosensory integration, producing similar VSI measurements and demonstrating virtually no systematic bias compared to the traditional laboratory apparatus. Furthermore, CatchU’s responses were significantly less variable, suggesting that the remote digitial health app captures more consistent measurements.

“This publication is just the beginning, with several more to follow as our clinical trial continues over the next 12 months,” says Mahoney. “We are deeply grateful for the opportunity to be part of the BCW WIN program. It’s truly remarkable to have our research and initiatives supported by so many organizations across Westchester, including—but not limited to—the Business Council of Westchester, Office of Economic Development, Westchester County Biosciences Accelerator, and Burke Rehabilitation Hospital, to name a few.”

This breakthrough signifies a significant step forward in making vital VSI assessments more accessible and efficient for everyday clinical use. It reduces the need for expensive, bulky equipment and complex data analysis, paving the way for wider adoption in healthcare.

“Proactive identification of risk of falls allows healthcare providers and older adults to take preventive actions. CatchU is a unique digital health app based on strong science and can be readily available for anyone in the community to ‘catch’ individuals at fall risk,” said Dr. Mooyeon Oh-Park, Chief Medical Officer, SVP at Burke Rehabilitation Hospital. “The recent publication sets the foundation for CatchU to be used as a tool comparable to the gold stand testing in the lab.”

The publication of CatchU’s successful study comes shortly after CatchU became a finalist in the 2025 NIA Startup challenge. NIA Start-Up Challenge Stage 1 finalists represent a multidisciplinary group of researchers and entrepreneurs who have innovative ideas for science-driven technologies and products that have the potential to advance the fields of aging and age-related diseases.

The success of the CatchU and Burke Rehabilitation Hospital collaboration is a testament to the BCW WIN’s mission to spark innovation and plant the seeds for new industries and job creation within Westchester.

“I am absolutely thrilled by the success of the CatchU and Burke Rehabilitation Hospital match, a true testament to the power of WIN,” said Marsha Gordon, President and CEO of the BCW. “To see an emerging Westchester-based technology prove its concept with such significant potential to improve the lives of countless individuals is incredibly rewarding and precisely why we launched WIN.”