In launching a new app to help patients recover following hip and knee replacements, startup PeerWell has enlisted two pro football players as investors and consultants.
Thursday, San Francisco-based PeerWell is introducing ReHab, a companion to its existing PreHab platform. The new product walks patients through range-of-motion exercises, collecting data such as the number of repetitions and degrees of knee flexion via the accelerometers and gyroscopes built into modern smartphones.
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Users simply open the app, then place their phones in their socks. “It doesn’t require any external devices,” PeerWell CEO Manish Shah said.
“It helps patients understand pain management better,” Shah added.
Few understand pain as much as oft-injured professional athletes. In developing ReHab, PeerWell brought in Glover Quin, a safety for the Detroit Lions, and recently retired running back Arian Foster, who was a teammate of Quin’s with the Houston Texans.
“The most important part of every rehab process I’ve been through was regaining my range of motion,” said Foster, who has had 14 surgeries despite only being 30 years old. “My doctors were constantly assessing my motion to see if my recovery was on track,” Foster added in a PeerWell statement.
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“I had ankle surgery scheduled and PeerWell helped my make sure I was fully prepared,” Quin wrote in an email to MedCity News. “I was so impressed by my quick recovery I decided to get more involved with the company.”
ReHab works in concert with PreHab, which PeerWell brought to market in 2015. “The surgeon introduces [patients] to PreHab as a way to prepare for surgery,” Shah said. That app provides information on recommended preoperative nutrition, pain management and controlling anxiety associated with a major surgical procedure.
“Once the patient has left the hospital, ReHab helps them understand the recovery process,” Shah said.
Foster invested in the company after PeerWell executives approached him following an Achilles’ tendon rupture in October 2015. According to the company, Foster used PreHab for preoperative physical therapy and was able to resume athletic training five months after reconstructive surgery.
Foster joined the Miami Dolphins for 2016, but got injured again two games into the season and retired Oct. 24.
Most of Quin’s injuries have involved his ankles. “I’ve had a lot of surgeries throughout my professional career, and for an ankle surgery, PeerWell helped me prepare. The company really helped me understand what I can do to fully prepare for surgery both mentally and physically to ensure positive surgical outcomes,” he said. “Now, with ReHab, the company is also helping patients after surgery to recover quickly.”
PeerWell, founded in 2014, also raised a $2.1 million seed round of venture capital two months ago. The company sells its platform through health systems. To date, three healthcare organizations in the U.S. and one in Germany are using the technology, Shah said, though he would not name them.
PeerWell, though, is mostly focusing on knee and hip replacements. “There are so many older patients having joint replacements,” Shah noted.
That means the target user base has a lot of Medicare enrollees. Among the company’s advisors is Charlene Frizzera, a former acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Photo: PeerWell
