For decades, vibration therapy has shown promise in helping people with Parkinson’s disease and other neurological disorders improve mobility, balance and gait. Yet for many patients — particularly older adults — the devices can pose challenges: rigid hardware, heavy components, short battery life and designs that feel more like medical equipment than something meant to be worn throughout the day.

Daeha Joung, Ph.D., an associate professor of physics in the Virginia Commonwealth University College of Humanities and Sciences, is working to change that paradigm. With support from the Commercialization Fund administered by VCU TechTransfer & Ventures — part of the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation — Joung and his lab are developing a new class of soft, energy-efficient vibration devices.

By being embedded directly into clothing and wearable accessories, the innovation, Joung hopes, can bring personalized neurological therapy closer to everyday life.

“Dr. Joung’s work represents exactly the kind of innovation we aim to help bring to market: one that meets patients where they are to maximize impact,” said Brent Fagg, assistant director for innovation at TechTransfer and Ventures. “By designing vibration therapy that’s comfortable and built into everyday life, it has the potential to make treatment easier to stick with for those who really need it.”

A need for comfort and convenience

Joung’s work began with conversations with clinicians using vibration therapy in real-world settings. While existing devices could produce therapeutic effects, they often failed the most basic test: whether patients could comfortably use them for extended periods.

Ingrid Pretzer-Aboff, Ph.D., a nurse researcher and professor in the VCU School of Nursing, informed him that while existing devices could produce therapeutic effects, they often failed when it came to user-friendliness and practicality.

“Devices are very bulky, power efficiency is lower and it's not comfortable,” Joung said. Such discomfort isn’t a minor inconvenience: Asking Parkinson’s patients to manage heavy, awkward devices — sometimes built into shoes or strapped onto the body — can significantly limit adherence to therapy. “For older Parkinson's patients, the current available solution is very inconvenient for them.”

Rather than trying to incrementally improve existing designs, Joung saw an opportunity to rethink the device architecture altogether, drawing on his background in soft electronics and flexible materials.

Soft electronics meet therapeutic care

Joung’s innovation marks a shift away from rigid components toward soft, flexible electromagnetic actuators — also known as tactors — that can conform to the body. These tactors deliver carefully controlled vibrations directly to the skin, while integrated sensors monitor how that vibration is actually being experienced by the patient.

The system combines vibrotactile stimulation, integrated pressure sensing and a smartphone-connected controller, enabling real-time monitoring and adjustment of therapy. This approach addresses a longstanding limitation of vibration therapy: the inability to quantify and personalize what Joung refers to as the “mechanical dose — the actual mechanical stimulation delivered to the user.”

“The problem is that each individual patient has different reactions or different results from the vibration, because their skin or neurological system is different,” he said.

By capturing data on mechanical amplitude and frequency as it’s delivered to the skin, the system allows clinicians and researchers to tailor therapy to individual patients rather than relying on one-size-fits-all settings. “Once we know the actual mechanical amplitude and frequency reaching the skin, we can better understand the vibration dose being delivered,” Joung said.

Designed for all-day wear and various garments

Energy efficiency is another critical aspect of Joung’s platform. Many existing vibration devices rely on high-power actuators that drain standard 3.7-volt lithium ion batteries in just a few hours, forcing patients to recharge or swap batteries multiple times a day.

Joung’s low-power solenoid-based electromagnetic actuators dramatically reduce energy consumption, opening the door to wear times of 10 hours or more on a single charge. That improvement is essential if vibration therapy is to move beyond short clinical sessions and become part of daily living — integrated into socks, wraps or garments that patients can forget they’re even wearing.

Embedding the technology into fabric is a major focus in the current development phase. Joung’s team is working to ensure that the devices remain flexible, durable and safe — even after repeated use — so they can function as true e-textiles rather than delicate lab prototypes.

“We need to finalize the design of the textile or fabric that can connect to the vibrator and controllers and sensors,” he said.

Built through collaboration

From the outset, Joung’s work has bridged physics, engineering and clinical practice. Partnerships with nursing researchers like Pretzer-Aboff, engineers, materials scientists and designers have helped ensure the technology is grounded in patient needs while remaining technically robust.

Joung notes that Christina Tang, Ph.D., associate professor of chemical and life sciences engineering in the VCU College of Engineering, helped immensely in figuring out how to incorporate the tactors and textiles. Hawa Stwodah, MFA, assistant professor of fashion design in the VCU School of the Arts, helped design the wearable wrap to ensure comfort, usability and accessibility for individuals with Parkinson’s disease. Joung also credits Ph.D. students Udena Epitawala Arachchige and Phillip Glass as key contributors in the innovation’s progress, highlighting the role of mentorship and teamwork in translating academic research to real-world solutions.

“I’m just developing technologies, but to get it personalized and ready for a clinical setting, we have to consider multi-disciplinary strategies,” Joung said.

From lab to life

While Parkinson’s disease is a key initial application, Joung emphasizes that the technology is fundamentally a platform, not a single-use device. Its combination of soft actuators, sensing and smart e-textiles opens pathways into rehabilitation, prosthetics, assistive wearables and even immersive haptic systems.

“Short-term goal is, within one year, we want to test the device with patients in clinical research settings, then look at its possible applications in the neurological and other medical fields,” Joung said.

Support from the Commercialization Fund is helping the team move from promising prototypes toward market-ready systems, generating the data and designs needed to engage industry partners and pursue licensing opportunities. Next steps include surveying the device’s performance with Parkinson’s patients, along with its durability, washability and skin safety.