Swedish startup Jojnts has developed a digital version of a national program to help people diagnosed with osteoarthritis better manage their condition. The idea is that by providing an app for the program the company will be able to find a global audience in search of a way to treat osteoarthritis in a way that could reduce healthcare costs for individuals.
So far it has raised $400,000 in a seed round led by Lund University. It plans to use the funding to hire engineering sales executives and support the development of its Web-based platform into apps supported by iOS and Android networks, according to emailed comments from Jojnt co-founder and CEO Jakob Dahlberg.
It also needs to record English versions of its videos, currently in Swedish.
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Users complete a short assessment to evaluate their risk of getting the joint disease, according to Dahlberg. If they are at risk, the app maps out a treatment schedule customized to each patient. Users are assigned a physiotherapist coach and receive guidance on physical activities and to help participants better understand their condition. These coaches communicate with patients and monitor them remotely through a dashboard. The physiotherapist tweaks the program based on each patient’s reports on the app.
The program is based on an osteoarthritis project developed in 2008 by Jojnts co-founders Dr. Leif Dahlberg, an orthopedic professor and head of research at Lund University and Carina Thorstensson, an associate professor and physiotherapist at Gothenburg University. The project was backed by the Swedish government. Dahlberg said clinical studies of more than 40,000 patients have shown the program can reduce pain.
A pilot of the app in Sweden includes 150 users. It plans to start a pilot in the US in May. Dahlberg added that the company is in talks with payers and providers to implement the program in health systems. It has also formed a strategic partnership with the Swedish Rheumatism Association.
An IMS Institute of Healthcare Informatics report showed that despite a proliferation of health apps, relatively few are designed to help people with arthritis — the most common cause of disability. It counted 11 apps targeting rheumatoid arthritis and only five apps for osteoarthritis in the report, released a little more than one year ago.
