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RespondWell aligns telerehabilitation programs with Philips to support aging in place

Philips isn't RespondWell's only collaboration. It also launched a partnership with Sensoria last year to use its smart sock to monitor gait and balance.

RespondWellThe clinician mandate for bundled payments for Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement model is going effect next month. The mandate will tie payments for procedures to outcomes and that has spurred several companies to develop a way to use sensors and programs, such as Microsoft Kinect, to help care teams monitor the recovery of patients from home though interactive rehabilitation physical therapy programs.

The idea is to validate whether patients are doing their physical therapy homework and if not, then uncover an underlying problem thwarting the patient’s recovery and address it. RespondWell is one of the companies in this space and launched a collaboration with Philips at the HIMSS conference this week focused on helping seniors age in place.

RespondWell exhibited at the Mid America Healthcare Venture Forum last year, which was later renamed MedCity Invest.

In an interview with Chief Marketing Officer John Grispon, who once worked in the fintech sector at Microsoft, he said the company initially developed an interactive exercise program called Fitness@Home aimed at helping seniors get stronger after they were deemed by physicians to be a fall risk. The rehabilitation for hip and knee replacement surgery patients, Therapy@Home, is newer.

Grispon acknowledged that the programs aren’t for everyone. Users would need Wi-Fi, and physician practices would need to determine who is a good candidate for the telerehabilitation and who is not.

The typical hip or knee replacement surgery patient is in their 60s. Grispon added that Therapy@Home could also be adjusted for people recovering from sports-related procedures such as a torn ACL as well as conditions such as osteoarthritis. Although an FDA analysis concluded that it does not yet need to seek 501(k) clearance, it may submit an application in the future, Grispon said.

He said of its collaboration with Philips that it makes sense since its approach to empowering patients in their healthcare at home echoes what RespondWell seeks to do.

But Philips isn’t RespondWell’s only collaboration. It also launched a partnership with Sensoria last year to use its smart sock to monitor gait and balance.

In a demo of Therapy@Home, users follow a coach avatar in their exercise regime. Before the exercises start, users are first asked a series of questions designed to get the latest on their progress such as how they are feeling and the level of pain they are in. A little like a video game, they can track their progress of repetitions and get encouragement along the way. If the user does the exercise the wrong way — such as lifting the wrong leg — the program flashes instructions informing users to lift the other leg. It can also be adjusted to convey audio instructions.

“We think it’s great that there are so many companies competing in this space,” Grispon said. But he believes there will be some consolidation.

Other collaborations on the horizon include one with Validic, since it also has a relationship with Philips as well. It is also in talks with EHR providers to integrate its data. It currently works with Allscripts.

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