Designing for Healing, Building for Reality: DeCell’s Journey to Rethink Pressure Ulcers Through Lived Experience
“A pressure ulcer in a person with spinal cord injury isn’t treated as an emergency or a life-threatening injury, but in reality, it is, and it should be.”
That reality, shared by a person with lived experience (PLEX) of spinal cord injury (SCI) during the Praxis SCI Incubate Program, reframed the stakes for DeCell Technologies. Pressure ulcers are often managed as routine complications, even though they can rapidly become life-threatening injuries.
For DeCell’s founders, Paul Gratzer and Sean Margueratt, this insight shifted their focus; instead of asking whether a wound could heal, they began asking why timely, decisive care was not reaching the people who needed it most. DeCell Technologies was born at the intersection of regenerative medicine and tissue banking. Paul had spent years researching tissue replacement and regenerative medicine, while Sean’s work at a regional tissue bank revealed a troubling gap: large amounts of donated skin were being discarded even as demand remained high. Together, they began exploring how donated human skin could be used more effectively for wound healing, beyond its typical role as a temporary covering.
As the company grew, their focus expanded from treating burns to addressing severe chronic wounds, including diabetic foot ulcers, to test the limits of the technology. From there, they began asking where this regenerative approach could have the greatest impact. That search led them to pressure ulcers in people living with spinal cord injury and ultimately to the Praxis program.
When DeCell joined the Praxis SCI Incubate Program, they were not looking to redesign the technology itself. They were seeking clarity on how it fit into real lives and real care pathways, and what needed to be in place around the therapy for it to work in practice, not just in principle.
One of the most important shifts came through a significant element across Praxis Innovation programs – engagement with the Praxis PLEX community. In conversations with people living with spinal cord injury, the team encountered a perspective that directly challenged a long-standing clinical assumption.
“The length of time offloaded was not the issue. If people knew there was an endpoint, they were willing to do it.” said Sean.
The PLEX community explained that offloading, the requirement to stay off a wound for a defined period, is often framed by clinicians as unrealistic or as a compliance problem. The lived experience perspective reframed that assumption. When expectations were clear and outcomes were meaningful, adherence was not the barrier it was assumed to be.
That insight mattered.
“That was a really important validation for us. It helped distinguish between clinician assumptions and what people actually experience.” said Sean.
When DeCell joined the Praxis SCI Incubate Program, they were not looking to redesign the technology itself. They were seeking clarity on how it fit into real lives and real care pathways, and what needed to be in place around the therapy for it to work in practice, not just in principle.
It validated what DeCell was already seeing in practice and gave the team confidence to challenge narratives that can quietly block access to care. It also reshaped how they thought about communication. The issue was not simply what the product does, but how expectations are set, how timelines are explained, and how people are supported throughout treatment.
DeCell had participated in other incubators and accelerators. Those programs offered valuable pieces of support, business guidance, clinical input, or commercialization advice, but often in isolation.
“Everything was in the room [during Praxis mentorships meetings] at once – lived experience, clinicians, business, regulatory. None of it was siloed,” said Paul. Having lived experience involved throughout kept the patient perspective present in every discussion. That’s something we hadn’t experienced before.”
That integration changed how DeCell worked. Through the program, the team began rethinking how they approach education, language, and support, particularly for people navigating complex care systems. They became more deliberate about online resources, peer-to-peer support, and how lived experience insights are communicated to clinicians whose assumptions may not always reflect patient realities. Ideas were tested from multiple angles in real time. Tensions between clinical convention and lived experience were acknowledged rather than avoided, allowing decisions to be stress-tested before reaching patients or providers.
For DeCell, this integrated approach mattered especially in the Canadian healthcare context, where adoption pathways are complex, and innovation can stall even when clinical evidence is strong.. Instead of treating the U.S. as the default route to market, Praxis supported DeCell in taking on the harder work of building a Canadian adoption pathway, grounded in the realities of implementation and access for patients in Canada.
Moving Forward with Sharper Questions
DeCell leaves the program with greater clarity, not only about what they are building, but about where it fits, who it serves, and what must change for healing to happen sooner. The work ahead is less about proving efficacy and more about aligning systems, expectations, and support structures so that proven solutions can actually reach people.
That learning also shapes their advice to founders considering the Praxis program.
“Those four months go by fast. The value comes from being clear about what you need to learn and which assumptions you want challenged,” said Sean.
For DeCell, the most important shift was not technical. It was learning to see the problem through the eyes of the people living with it and to design everything around that reality.
About DeCell Technologies
DeCell Technologies is a Canadian regenerative medicine company developing innovative biomaterials to treat chronic and complex wounds. Their flagship product, DermGEN™, is a human-derived decellularized regenerative matrix engineered to accelerate healing in wounds that fail to respond to standard care, including diabetic foot ulcers, burns, and pressure injuries. Unlike traditional grafts, DermGEN™ is gently processed to preserve the tissue’s natural regenerative properties without high-energy sterilization—resulting in a biologically active matrix that supports faster tissue repair and reduces complications. Already in use across multiple Canadian healthcare settings, DermGEN™ is transforming outcomes for clinicians and patients by offering clinicians an easy-to-use regenerative therapy that improves healing and expands access to advanced wound care.
About the Praxis SCI Incubate Program
The Praxis Spinal Cord Institute’s Incubate Program is a four-month Program geared towards prototype stage projects with innovation to transform the lives of people with spinal cord injury (SCI). The Program provides targeted end-user product validation, research support, expert mentorship, and access to a commercialization network.
About GraspAgain
GraspAgain aims to restore hand function in people with neuromuscular impairments through intelligent neuroorthosis. The system comprises two main components: a non-invasive brain-machine interface and advanced mechatronics. The brain-machine interface utilizes artificial intelligence to decode biosignals measured from the forearm muscles of the paralyzed hand, accurately interpreting the intended movement. This decoded intention is then mapped to the actuation unit of the orthosis, which executes the corresponding movement.
To facilitate daily use, the neuroorthosis consists of two parts: a lightweight hand module and a separate actuation unit. The hand module weighs only 100 grams and fits over the paralyzed hand, while the actuation unit can be easily attached or detached via a smart coupling mechanism as needed. The control system is cable-driven and anatomically inspired; similar to muscles, the motors pull and release “tendons” to generate mechanical movement. Their interdisciplinary team, with extensive expertise, is confident that GraspAgain represents a revolutionary product that will empower people with hand impairments to lead more independent lives.
About the Praxis SCI Incubate Program
The Praxis Spinal Cord Institute’s Incubate Program is a four-month Program geared towards prototype stage projects with innovation to transform the lives of people with spinal cord injury (SCI). The Program provides targeted end-user product validation, research, mentorship support, tailored mentorship, expert guidance, and access to their commercialization network.