Duolingo sparks idea for Cork startup to help people with Parkinson’s

Teleatherapy is a Cork city-based business that has developed an app for people with Parkinson’s to aid with retaining their speech skills.

“Parkinson’s is the fastest growing neurodegenerative disease, and 90 per cent of people with Parkinson’s experience changes to their voice. Their voices get quieter over time and it leads to weakness of the muscles,” Clare Meskill, chief executive and co-founder of Teleatherapy, told the Business Post.

“It’s very important that they get speech therapy early on. It’s a use it or lose it approach. Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t have sufficient access to speech and language therapists.”

Meskill started the business in 2020 alongside her co-founder Dave Callinan. The firm is based in the Innovation Gateway in UCC.

“After the patient’s initial appointment, they get set up on the app and the information is fed back to their therapist so they can see how they are getting on. The therapist can monitor changes and know when to call them in for an appointment if necessary,” Meskill said.

“People live with Parkinson’s for a long time. Some years there’s no change, whereas others they might have a lot. Our app helps with that communication piece.”

Meskill developed the idea while working as a speech and language therapist and volunteering with the Parkinson’s Association of Ireland. While playing with Duolingo, a popular language learning app, she thought that a Duolingo for Parkinson’s could provide real benefits.

“I had no idea how to start a business or about tech. Ignite brought it from an idea to a business. Within the first nine months I’d received innovation vouchers from Enterprise Ireland and had a basic idea of the patient end of the technology, before we began our pilot with patients in 2021,” Meskill said.

“I’m impatient so it was a quick turnaround. We’re piloting the speech therapist side of the app with the HSE in January.”

That pilot project will involve between five and ten therapists using the app across a broad range of patient settings. Meskill said the speed at which the business has reached this stage of testing is due in large part to support from Enterprise Ireland.

“They’ve been a help from the very start. Without the innovation vouchers, we wouldn’t have been able to validate the business. Since then the market advisers have been a great help, we have a development adviser that specialises in helping women to raise investment,” Meskill said.

“Our first step was working with branches of the Parkinson’s Association of Ireland. By January of last year, we had our first employee. We’re expanding at the moment, hiring a speech and language therapist, and expanding our pilot with patients.”

The business plans to expand into Britain with its pilot programmes, working with the NHS in 2023.

“Day to day feels slow, but looking back, we’ve done a lot over two years. We’re hoping to announce our first fundraising round in January or February. We’re in the final stages now,” Meskill said.

“We’re in the process of working through FDA [Food and Drug Administration] registration in the US. We hope to have that by the end of 2023. Then, we will look to expand into the US.”

This Making It Work article was produced in partnership with Enterprise Ireland