About Vertigocatcher

Dizziness is a highly complex symptom. The manifestations vary significantly and are unique to each affected individual. While dizziness can stem from many different causes, disturbances in the sense of balance are by far the most common. Often, multiple factors contribute simultaneously, and these underlying causes tend to evolve over time.

Relying solely on a patient’s medical history to diagnose dizziness has proven to be an unreliable method. In contrast, assessing the signals from the balance system while symptoms are actively present offers significantly greater diagnostic precision.

Signals from the balance system are linked to eye movements. Consequently, analyzing patterns of eye movement is the only way to diagnose—or rule out—active physical disturbances within the balance system.

However, technology for visualizing eye movements is not widely available in general healthcare settings. Furthermore, performing a qualified analysis of eye movements requires extensive experience.

The timing of the assessment is critical; examinations conducted during symptom-free periods may yield entirely normal results.

Our approach involves shifting the assessment and diagnosis of eye movements, moving this process away from general healthcare settings and into the hands of the specialists in dizziness.

1 The Nystagmocatcher optical adapter transforms your mobile phone into a digital measuring instrument for balance system impulses. This allows you to conduct assessments independently of the equipment and the expertise in general healthcare settings.

2 Clear audio instructions enable you to independently conduct a standardized examination of your vestibular system (balance sense) all by yourself

3 Because clinical findings obtained during episodes of severe symptoms offer high diagnostic precision, the examination should be performed precisely at those times, diagnostic timing. You can carry out these examinations at any time of day and regardless of your location.

4 Using a communication platform that meets stringent privacy and data protection standards, you can send your examination data to us. We will then provide our analysis and a recommended treatment strategy, typically on the same business day, between 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM.

The goal of Vertigocatchers is to provide time- and cost-efficient care for dizziness, with a focus on early diagnosis and targeted treatment. Beyond reducing personal suffering and lowering societal costs, our approach aims to prevent the functional and psychological complications that frequently arise after the loss of balance control.

In 2017, we began developing a system for the telemedical diagnosis of balance responses, initially intended only for patients living far away who were seeking care at the Yrselcenter dizziness clinic in Stockholm.

As of May 2024, both the hardware and software have been adapted to meet Swedish legal requirements, hold MDR/CE certification, and are therefore approved for use by other healthcare providers within the EU. In 2023, the first scientific study from a Dutch dizziness clinic was published in Journal of Neurology.

The ability to access information about our patients’ balance signals around the clock has yielded a wealth of new knowledge. The most significant insight has been a deeper understanding of the complexity of vestibular disorders. A handful of known physical illnesses appear to be in constant flux, manifesting in new variations. When we also factor in non-physical, functional causes, we gain a much better grasp of the full range of symptoms our patients experience.

The ability to diagnose episodes of dizziness through multiple assessments over time, rather than relying on a single examination conducted simply because that happened to be when your clinic appointment took place, has opened a new diagnostic window. This provides a far better understanding of the complex dynamics underlying dizziness and balance disorders.

And only once we have understood the true nature of your condition can we propose effective treatments.