BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 28, 2026--
REEV announced today that it has initiated a pivotal clinical study of DREEVEN, the company's intelligent robotic knee-ankle-foot orthosis designed to restore mobility and independence for stroke survivors with chronic gait impairment. Stroke is among the leading causes of long-term disability in the United States. According to the American Stroke Association, more than 80% of stroke survivors experience gait impairment. Most experience some gait improvement during the first two months of recovery, but community ambulation remains compromised. Gait ability is an essential predictor of functional independence, quality of life, and long-term survival after stroke.
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The study will evaluate how DREEVEN supports patient mobility and performance during functional activities, including walking on both flat and uneven surfaces, navigating stairs, and completing sit-to-stand transfers. In addition to in-clinic sessions, the study incorporates home monitoring, enabling evaluation of DREEVEN's performance and safety during real-world daily activities. Data will be collected as participants move through their lives, not just in the clinic.
Lou Awad, PT, DPT, PhD, director of Boston University's Neuromotor Recovery Laboratory, is the study's Principal Investigator. Encompass Health of Braintree, MA, and Whittier Rehabilitation Hospital of Bradford, MA, are participating as clinical sites. These partners bring deep expertise in stroke rehabilitation and a shared understanding of meaningful recovery. This study marks a critical milestone in REEV's journey toward FDA clearance and commercial launch.
"The clinicians in these facilities work with stroke survivors every day – they understand the gap between what patients can do today and what they need to do to live independently,” said Amaury Ciurana, CEO of REEV. “These partners are helping us generate clinical evidence while also building the pathway to real-world patient access once DREEVEN receives FDA clearance."
Dr. Brigid Dwyer, MD notes, "One of the most valuable aspects of this study is its incorporation of home monitoring alongside in-clinic sessions. Evaluating device performance in real-world settings gives us a more complete picture of how DREEVEN may support patients in their daily lives."
This study builds on REEV's established clinical foundation. SENSE, the company's FDA-registered, HIPAA-compliant gait analysis system, is already in use at rehabilitation centers across the country. It gives clinicians objective, real-time insight into each patient's unique gait pattern. SENSE data is designed to customize DREEVEN’s motor control – calibrating the precise level of assistance each patient needs during their daily activities.
REEV is expanding access to effective mobility solutions for stroke survivors living with chronic gait impairments through this pivotal study and the Neuro-Integration Program. This clinical collaboration with leading stroke centers ensures that when DREEVEN is cleared, the infrastructure to support patients will already be in place.
Rehabilitation centers interested in learning about DREEVEN's pivotal study or REEV's Neuro-Integration Program are encouraged to contact megan.hoogmoed@reev.care.
DREEVEN is an investigational device that has not been cleared for commercial sale in the United States.
About REEV
REEV is a medical technology company with offices in Toulouse, France, and Boston, Massachusetts. Its mission is to reinvent mobility care for millions of people facing physical limitations due to neurological conditions, aging, or orthopedic disorders through intelligent, lightweight wearable robotics. REEV’s technology portfolio includes REEV SENSE, a precise gait analysis system, and DREEVEN, a prescription-based, intelligent robotic knee-ankle-foot orthosis, currently in clinical trials. Connect with REEV on LinkedIn.
The first smart, patient-centric, motorized orthosis for everyday life after stroke.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A wealthy couple in suburban Los Angeles recruited women across the country to serve as surrogates, promising them that they were just looking for another child to grow their family.
Instead, prosecutors say, the couple used several surrogates at the same time, amassed a brood of 21 children — some as young as 2 months — and raised them in a “house of horrors” where they suffered daily beatings at the hands of cruel nannies as the couple watched and laughed from a network of surveillance cameras.
Guojun Xuan, 66, and Silvia Zhang, 39, were arrested Tuesday at their home in Arcadia, a city about 13 miles (20 kilometers) northeast of downtown Los Angeles.
The couple face several counts of child abuse as well as conspiracy to commit child abuse, accessory after the fact and dissuading a witness, according to Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman.
“This case is unprecedented. It is horrific,” he said during a morning news conference. “The physical abuse, beating and punishment that these very young children received is despicable.”
Prosecutors were seeking $100 million bail for the couple because of the serious nature of the charges and because they are flight risks, Hochman said. They were scheduled to be arraigned at the Pasadena courthouse later in the day.
Fifteen children were removed from the opulent home last year after an allegation of abuse, and another six living elsewhere were also located. They ranged in age from 2 months to 13 years, with most between 1 and 3. Police believe Zhang gave birth to one or two of the children, while the rest were carried and delivered by surrogates.
Hochman said the couple set up an agency, Mark Surrogacy, that they operated from home and used to hire surrogates throughout the U.S. But prosecutors said the couple misled the women, telling some that they could not conceive and others that they only had one child and wanted one more to complete their family.
“The house could only be described as a house of horrors for these incredible young children,” Hochman said.
Zhang and Xuan were first arrested in May 2025 after a hospital reported that their 2-month-old infant had a traumatic head injury, the result of being violently shaken by a nanny, according to Arcadia police.
Police did not file charges at the time, saying they needed to complete the investigation.
Hochman said the couple set up three rooms they called learning centers, where the children spent several hours a day sitting at desks under the supervision of nannies.
Through an extensive surveillance system including motion-activated cameras, the couple watched as the nannies physically abused the children, including daily beatings, he said.
In one video, Xuan is shown entering a room and telling a nanny to strike a child harder, Hochman said, and in another he joins the nanny in hitting the child.
The nannies were allegedly told “not to leave any physical marks on the children,” and when police arrived to investigate in May 2025, the children were told to deny they had been beaten.
After examining the surveillance video, police issued an arrest warrant for Chunmei Li, the nanny seen hurting the 2-month-old infant, but she could not be found.
Hochman said “there will be a reckoning” for the defendants, one of whom faces more than 17 years in prison if convicted.
When asked about the couple’s motivation, Hochman said that was part of the investigation, as was the parentage of each child.
Mitchell Krems, Xuan’s attorney, previously told ABC7 that Xuan’s goal was to raise children who become productive adults.
“The reason he has all these children is because he wants them to contribute to society. He is not a man who is self-indulgent,” Krems said. “Some who are wealthy might spend on jewelry or cars, but he is actually spending his resources to help his children become educated so that they can be the philosophers, the physicians, the researchers and the inventors that help society.”
Krems did not immediately respond Tuesday to an email seeking comment.
Surrogacy is an arrangement in which a woman agrees to carry and deliver a child for another person or couple, often after an embryo transfer.
There is no comprehensive federal law regulating surrogacy, leaving most rules to the states.
California is considered a “surrogacy-friendly state” because it has clear laws governing the process. Both sides are required to have lawyers, and there must be a written, notarized contract before an embryo transfer takes place.
Investigators have said they were looking into whether the couple misled surrogates around the country and at least eight women came forward to say they were aggressively pursued to serve as surrogates.
The women, many of them first-time surrogates, said they were given misleading or incomplete information about the couple’s family situation and intentions.
At least one, Kayla Elliott, is now trying to get custody of a baby she birthed for the couple.
Marcelo reported from New York.
FILE - An aerial view shows the home of Silvia Zhang and Guojun Xuan on July 16, 2025, in Arcadia, Calif. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
