Articulate Labs Team
Management Team
Josh Rabinowitz
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Josh Rabinowitz currently serves as Co-Founder & CEO for Articulate Labs, a medical device company developing wearable devices to accelerate muscle strengthening and training. In this role, Josh is responsible for fundraising, business development, proposal writing, communications, team/advisor recruitment, and continual corporate improvement. Accomplishments on Articulate Labs’ behalf include multiple awards, letters of interest from hospital systems, risk-sharing partnerships with vendors, pieces of media coverage, and support from nationally recognized healthtech accelerator programs. All the above stem from a drive toward continual improvement in both self and company as a servant leader that starts with unflinching honesty and ends only with quantifiable change.
Before Articulate Labs, Josh managed operations, finance, and policy work in the non-profit and governmental sectors and graduated with a B.A. in Political Theory & Constitutional Democracy from Michigan State University. Outside of Articulate Labs, Josh enjoys working out, reading, and not having to attend any happy hours for the foreseeable future.
Herbie Kirn
Co-Founder & Chief Science Officer
Larry J. (“Herbie”) Kirn is an adaptive control systems pioneer and a startup veteran with 55+ patents issued worldwide. His last company, JAM Technologies, commercialized a new class of digital amplification commercialized, raised $3M seed and $11M Series A rounds, and formed partnerships with several multi-billion industry leaders. Previously, Mr. Kirn served as a senior systems engineer for Chrysler and GM Research, where he honed his expertise in digital signal processing, systems architecture, embedded control system design, and real-time operating systems. An amputee due to a motorcycle accident, Mr. Kirn's interests have turned toward developing devices that can help restore mobility and livelihood for others.
Kyle Kircher
Chief Commercialization Officer
Kyle brings a unique combination of senior level management in both medical device and physical rehabilitation services. This includes almost 30 years of extensive healthcare sales leadership with privately held, publicly traded firms, and venture backed start-ups. He enjoys strategically building winning teams and growing companies who provide solutions to improve patient outcomes by changing the standard of care through cost effective, innovative products and services. Kyle started his sales and leadership career in orthopedic rehabilitation and pain management. After successfully leading 2 different regions in the medical device space he changed gears and directed a division in the health service sector of occupational medicine. From there he led the commercialization efforts of a first to market, disruptive, FDA approved device focused on treating lower extremity wounds. This wound care sales leadership experience later allowed him to consult with companies who needed assistance in launching new products. Recruited by his former CSMO he became the National VP of Sales for the second largest occupational medicine provider in the United States that resulted in record revenues during his tenure. Most recently, Kyle was the National VP of Sales for a network of 200 outpatient physical therapy clinics in 16 states responsible for building sales infrastructure, executing growth initiatives, channel partner development, and service line expansion. Kyle holds a degree from the University of California, Davis. He enjoys spending time with his family, traveling, or any outdoor activity, especially exploring the waters below as a master scuba diver.
Board of Directors
Jeff Brown
Jeff brings to Articulate Labs twenty six years of experience as a General Manager and Chief Operating Officer for such firms as Boston Scientific, Johnson & Johnson, Endologix and Haemonetics. Most recently, he was COO for Endologix, a leader in the Endovascular space where he led record breaking performance gains across supply chain and manufacturing. Jeff also led R&D where he launched the first new growth platform in over 5 years and also developed a new technology which recently received a Breakthrough Device Designation from the FDA. For his efforts Jeff and his teams were nominated for business transformation of the year by the Association for Corporate Growth, and also a Supply Chain Innovation Award from ASCMP. Prior to that Jeff was General Manager of a multi-site joint venture between Johnson & Johnson and Steris Corporation, where he led significant improvements across operations, quality, engineering, and supply chain. Prior to that, Jeff worked for five years as General Manager at Boston Scientific Corporation, where he led a critical site transformation and sat on the global supply chain management board.
Scientific Advisory Board
Anthony Johnson, MD
Johnson is the orthopedic surgery residency program director for Dell Medical School, and the orthopedic sports medicine clinical director at UT Health Austin’s Musculoskeletal Institute. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1994 and the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine in 1998 as a member of Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. He graduated with honors from the orthopedic surgery residency program at Brooke Army Medical Center in 2004. He became an American Board of Orthopedic Surgery diplomate in 2006 and obtained his sub-specialty certification in orthopedic sports medicine in 2008.
During his 28-year military career, he developed a passion to meet the needs of warfighters who sustain injuries during service. This passion developed in direct response to the needs of his patients while working as a Medical Corps officer (20 years), as an Orthopaedic Surgeon for the Joint Special Operations Command (six years) and during his last five years as the Chairman of the largest Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and the only Level-1 Trauma Center in the Department of Defense.
His passion for improved treatment, rehabilitation and reintegration led him to serve in senior roles as the president of the Society of Military Orthopaedic Surgeons, principal investigator for the Joint Warfighter Initiative to develop evidence-based CPGs and AUCs for war injuries and member of the steering committee of the Major Extremity Trauma and Rehabilitation Consortium. His scholarly activities include 67 peer-reviewed publications, four clinical practice guidelines, 17 moderator/panelist roles, 75 podium presentations and over $22.3M in extra-mural grant funding for his work on post-traumatic osteoarthritis and health outcomes disparities in casualties with an emphasis on the reintegration of elite disabled tactical athletes, especially female amputees.
Shuo-Hsiu (James) Chang, PT, PhD
Dr. James Chang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth. Dr. Chang is a physical therapist from Taiwan and received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Human Movement Science, with a specialty in motor control and learning, from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He also received a Fellowship in Geriatric Research Award from Section on Geriatrics, American Physical Therapy Association in 2005 for his significant contribution to geriatric research. During his postdoctoral training at the University of Iowa, he further developed research expertise in neuromuscular plasticity and neurophysiology.
Dr. Chang’s research focuses on neuromuscular plasticity and underlying mechanisms and the involvement of cortical and spinal circuitry in dynamic balance control, especially in maintaining balance or regaining balance from unexpected perturbation. He is practically interested in developing effective intervention that can exercise paralyzed or weak muscle and facilitate neuroplasticity at the spinal or/and cortical level. He has successfully obtained pilot funds (PI) to investigate the effects of mechanical oscillation on spinal and cortical excitability and identify biomarkers that may modulate the excitability following stroke. He has also received pilot funds (Co-I) to investigate the effects of lower limb exoskeleton locomotion training on gait in patients with spinal cord injuries. In addition, he has established collaboration with researchers from TWU and UH in several funded motor control studies.
J. Michael Bennett, MD
J. Michael Bennett, M.D., is a highly respected second-generation orthopedic surgeon serving the greater Houston and Sugarland areas. He is board-certified in orthopedic surgery and fellowship-trained in sports medicine and arthroscopy. Dr. Bennett completed his sports medicine fellowship working as a team physician for multiple sports franchises including the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Miami Hurricanes, Texas Southern University, and Florida International University.
Dr. Bennett specializes in the treatment of shoulder, elbow, and knee disorders, ligament reconstruction, as well as cartilage repair and restoration. He has had the honor of being selected by his peers as a Texas Super Doctor® for several years. His experience in treating many cases in sports medicine helped earn him the distinguished Certificate of Added Qualification in Sports Medicine.
In addition to running a busy medical practice, Dr. Bennett serves as Chairman of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons Multimedia Education committee and is the regional medical director for AngelMD which is a crowdfunding software platform connecting medical startups with physicians and healthcare professionals. He currently serves as a physician advisor at the Texas Medical Center Innovation Institute (TMCx) and has previously served as an expert consultant to the medical industry and healthcare startups.
Dr. Bennett continues to be involved in orthopedic research and instruction. He has several presentations and publications to his credit. He has served as a volunteer and clinical instructor for Shriners Hospital for Children and the University of Texas Houston.