New Product Digitizes Rehab on ANY Equipment – https://ryortho.com/

IncludeHealth is teaming up with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center to commercialize a new technology that allows athletes to correct their own biomechanics.

IncludeHealth, a digital health and performance technology company, has entered into a licensing agreement with the hospital to bring to market Augmented Neuromuscular Training (aNMT) technology developed by researchers there in conjunction with University of Cincinnati researchers. It uses camera-based real-time movement analysis and corrective feedback to help athletes and other at-risk groups change the way they move in order to reduce their risk for injury. The technology can also be used to boost an athlete’s performance.

Through this new partnership, IncludeHealth will integrate this new technology with its digital health platform to make it more accessible. The aNMT technology captures a patient’s movement on camera and then provides feedback on whether the movement was performed correctly or not. All feedback is in real-time so the patient can adjust movements immediately.

Greg Myer, Ph.D., director of The Human Performance Laboratory at Cincinnati Children’s and the director of Sport Performance Optimized by Research & Technology (SPORT) Center told OTW, that about 20 years ago they were recruited to solve anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries, particularly for female athletes. The prevailing thought was that the greater risk for ACL injuries in females was due to female hormones or the differences in anatomy between females and males. Through their research though they were excited to discover that the root problem was actually bad biomechanics.

“We spent a decade trying to prevent injuries by altering biomechanics and developed a training program in the lab, but there were challenges disseminating it. Coaches and parents didn’t feel comfortable correcting an athlete’s biomechanics so we wanted to come up with a self-guided program.”

That is what they have been hyper-focused on for the last few years. Meyer describes the aNMT technology as a “trainer in a box” who does the assessment and diagnosis and then shows the patient how to correct their movements.

He said, “What is unique about our technology is that the athlete looks at the biofeedback and decides how to fix it, coming up with their own movement solution which makes it easier for them to maintain and apply in their sport.”

Meyer added that this technology can also be helpful for children with developmental deficits and elderly people who are at high-risk for falls.

The FDA has granted 510(k) clearance to Scientific Analytics Inc.’s markerless DARI Health System.

The company claims the system, “Is the world’s first and only technology that delivers validated 3D kinematic and kinetic motion analytics without sensors, markers, or force plates. And it produces the reports within minutes of capturing the data.”

The system, according to FDA documents, allows a provider to, “quantify and graphically display human movement patterns and techniques for uses such as assessment and training of limb or body motion in pre/post rehabilitation evaluation, physical therapy, and the like.”

The company stated in its FDA clearance document that DARI’s existing motion capture technology system has been utilized in non-clinical biomechanical research, fitness applications, and performance evaluation for many years. “Now there is a need for the development of its use in clinical applications.” stated an April 3, 2019 company press release.

Hospital for Special Surgery Collaboration

To develop those clinical applications, the company in an April 3, 2019 press release, also announced a collaboration with Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in New York.

DARI’s computer vision and biomechanical analysis technology, according to the company, “has been refined by more than 425 billion data points of human motion gathered across applications in wellness, military, athletics and healthcare. Collaboration with HSS, the world’s largest academic medical center specializing in musculoskeletal health, will set new standards for full-body, dynamic motion analysis at population scale.”

Markerless Capture

The system is a “markerless,” three-dimensional human motion capture and analytical software system that uses off-the-shelf video cameras, off-the-shelf computer hardware, off-the-shelf motion analysis software, and proprietary DARI Health Software (consisting of DARI Connect, DARI Capture plug-in, DARI Insight Engine) to collect, quantify, and document full-body human kinematic and kinetics during patient movement.

Markerless means there are no position markers required for live capture or post-processing analysis. The system requires no contact with the patient, and poses no electrical, chemical, mechanical, thermal, or radiation safety concerns.

Motion are recorded in real-time, using a digital “skeleton” to identify joint center and segment data for the cervical spine, upper extremity, trunk, and lower extremity of the patient.

San Diego, California-based Reflexion Health has announced a new digital physical therapy platform called HelloPT™. Services provided include support for injury prevention, injury recovery, and telehealth access to qualified physical therapists.

The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) estimates that approximately half of all Americans are currently in need of physical therapy (PT) healthcare, with a risk of decreased quality of life. If left untreated, minor problems can also eventually evolve into chronic pain and serious conditions that require costly and invasive surgery.

Joe Smith, M.D., CEO of Reflexion Health emphasized this point, stating, “HelloPT is designed to empower people to improve their health. Physical therapy is often thought of as a tool for recovery, but PT can be incredibly beneficial to prevent injuries and keep physical therapy needs from getting to the point where surgery or pain medication becomes necessary.”

He explained to OTW, “Physical therapy can do wonders, from helping someone understand what causes their musculoskeletal problems, all the way to helping them resolve it. It just shouldn’t be so hard to access. We are trying to change that by providing an easy and informative on-ramp to the physical therapy experience—HelloPT.”

Users can access HelloPT on any device and, after responding to a short assessment, will receive an individualized, self-paced physical therapy exercise program. Telehealth care from licensed physical therapists is available for those requesting more specialized support.

HelloPT recommendations are based on Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG) of the Academy of Orthopaedic Physical Therapy (AOPT). The accessibility of a digital platform may allow those who are experiencing chronic pain or who have trouble finding time to seek an additional medical appointment to get care they wouldn’t have otherwise.

Marc Mirisch, P.T., D.P.T., M.B.A. from Digital Home Therapy spoke to OTW about this ease of access. Mirisch said, “The biggest question people have when they get injured is ‘what am I supposed to do?’ HelloPT helps people to get the answers they need conveniently and without any hassle. Whether they are seeking preventative care or trying [to] help an injury, they can access HelloPT to get answers to what steps they should be taking next.

Now, Western New York’s runners have access to a unique program specifically designed to maintain their health and help them achieve their goals as they participate in a sport that can place intense physical demands on them.

STRIDES (“Striving To Reduce Injuries During Endurance Sports”) has been developed by the physicians, therapists, athletic trainers and sports performance experts at Excelsior Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine.

“Runners and people who participate in other endurance sports have a very high incidence of musculoskeletal injuries, ” said Jason Matuszak, M.D., a board-certified primary care sports medicine physician and a partner at Excelsior Orthoapedics. “We developed STRIDES to address unique needs, including the effective treatment of injuries, prevention of future injuries and performance improvement.”

Asked about a typical first visit, Dr. Matuszak told OTW, “Obviously a lot depends on the severity or grade of injury. Although runners can be seen for any acute injury, most of the injured runners we see have overuse injuries, or injuries that occur through repetitive activity. We ask every injured runner to complete a runner’s history form on our website prior to their visit. We also ask them to bring in their current and/or most recent pair of running shoes so we can examine them for normal and abnormal wear patterns.”

“Our goals in evaluating the injured runner are both to determine what the injury is and, more importantly, why the injury occurred. The first visit is with one of our sports medicine physicians where they have an evaluation of their current injury, including a physical examination and pertinent diagnostic radiology services, like X-ray or musculoskeletal ultrasound or MRI (if appropriate). Once we have determined the nature and severity of the injury, we turn our attention to finding the things that may have predisposed the athlete to developing the problem. These could include differences in anatomy (like flat feet, being knock-kneed, or having a leg length discrepancy) and problems with the function of the structures (such as muscle weakness, range of motion deficits, or inflexibility). Sometimes we discover that it is primarily training errors or that their running shoes may not be the most appropriate choice for them.

Zimmer Biomet Holdings, Inc. is joining its competitors in helping their customers manage the new Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement (CJR) and other value-based payment systems.

On July 26, 2016, the company unveiled its Signature Solutions program, “a comprehensive suite of clinical services and technologies designed to assist hospitals and medical practices to seamlessly transition to value-based healthcare models by maintaining excellent patient outcomes, while maximizing procedural and cost efficiencies across the entire episode of care.”

In other words, help their customers avoid the penalties built into the CJR model.

The company says Signature Solutions had its genesis in the mid-1990s, when Zimmer Biomet launched its expert consulting services in response to the evolving global shift toward value-based healthcare. Since then, the company says it has advised more than 450 hospitals and healthcare facilities worldwide on “improving the value of their musculoskeletal programs by providing better care, lowering costs and increasing the number of patients treated.”

Combining those previous consulting services with new technologies and services will offer customers a “one-of-a-kind offering that drives improvement across every aspect of the healthcare value creation equation. Initially, Zimmer Biomet will offer the comprehensive suite of solutions to musculoskeletal healthcare service lines at select, academic facilities in the U.S., with a broader release scheduled for 2017.”

Signature Solutions Components

The core components of Signature Solutions will include:

• Interactive and proven patient engagement tools designed to educate patients about the procedure and treatment options, facilitate physician-patient communication, and increase patient adherence to pre-op, intra-op and post-op/rehab protocols.
• Data mining and analysis platform that enables hospitals to collect critical patient-reported outcomes data (i.e., satisfaction with care, pain management, facility, etc.) that can factor into the level of reimbursement provided for each procedure.
• Expert consulting services, digital health software solutions and personalized, patient-specific medical technologies and instruments that help hospitals improve patient outcomes, increase overall productivity and surgical efficiency by streamlining workflow, and enhance surgical and rehab protocols.

“Our 90-year legacy and leadership in musculoskeletal healthcare, coupled with more than a decade of consulting experience delivering measurably improved outcomes for large and small institutions worldwide, gives Zimmer Biomet a deep understanding of the levers driving success in the value-based healthcare environment, ” said Zimmer Biomet President and CEO David Dvorak.