Okay, Hippies. Here is an opportunity.
But, first of all, did you know that walking has a multitude of benefits? I subscribe to the mindset that "motion is lotion"! I walk, I get on my elliptical, I do Barre, I do yoga. I do ALL my PT exercises as prescribed. I move.
According to the Arthritis Foundation, walking does a ton of great things for your body, mind and soul.
· Improves circulation
· Strengthens your bones
· Helps you enjoy a longer life
· Lightens your mood
· Helps you lose weight
· Strengthens muscles
· Improves sleep
· Supports your joints
· Improves your breath
· Slows down mental decline
· Lower’s Alzheimer’s risk
· You will be able to do more for longer
As far as the mind and soul, I hiked 9 miles two weeks before my last hip surgery. And, honestly, maybe I should not have, but the plan was not 9 miles, it was five, but my dear friend, Michael, aka Pinocchio told me it would be 5-6 and easy. I almost died. But you know what? The achievement that I had that day buoyed me into a mindset of success with my last surgery in March.
As I've been recovering, I came across a PT company who is beta-testing an app to assess a person's gait. This app then provides immediate feedback. It is pretty cool. It's free, for now, which makes it even better!
I have used this app to measure my progress and I was also fortunate to be able to interview Rachel from One Step.
Tell me about your app and how this can benefit hip patients.
Sure! OneStep is a smartphone app for physical therapy, that was designed especially for the patient. I'll tell you a bit about the app and also share a story of a patient who used OneStep to get back on her feet after THR. OneStep's focus is on helping hip patients recover (pre and post THR, patients dealing with dysplasia, other hip injuries or conditions which affect walking or gait). We help patients recover their gait and improve their walking by giving them an app that allows them to monitor their progress, get personalized exercise plans, communicate 24/7 with a personal physical therapist, and more. The way it works is based on our gait analysis technology, which analyzes every step you take just by keeping your phone inside your pocket - and as a result, you receive personalized recovery plans made by our expert physical therapist based on your analysis! Since we're in early stages, it's also completely free for patients at this time.
[One patient that we've worked with is] 39 years old from the US, with two young kids. She had dysplasia and recently did THR on her right side after years of discomfort and pain. She had some in-person PT in the first two weeks after her surgery, but now she is stuck at home due to the pandemic and can't go into the clinic to see a therapist. She really wanted to get back to walking normally so she could run around with her kids. When she started with OneStep, she had several gait abnormalities, especially in her balance. She lacked confidence in her walk because she was nervous about falling - and she didn't know what to do to improve her balance! After downloading OneStep, she started improving. This patient loved tracking her progress and seeing her balance improve throughout the weeks she was using it. Once a month, she video chats with a OneStep physical therapist who prepares a personalized exercise plan for her, and monitors her progress. She is now 12 weeks post-op and is feeling much better. More than that, her confidence in her walk has skyrocketed! This is exactly what we hope to do with [all of our] patients.
Her story is one of many OneStep patients. We [also] have many patients [who] use OneStep as their primary source of physical therapy, meet with our therapist on a regular basis, and use the app to track their progress every day! Other patients use it alongside in-person PT, and love showing their PT their progress each time they come in. So many of them have said to me that they feel like they "finally understand" what their PT exercises were meant to do, and that seeing the progress really helps them feel motivated. This is exactly what we hope to do for thousands more!
2. What was the "ah ha" moment that caused your company to begin development. We realized that traditional PT wasn't working for many patients. So many couldn't go. Many didn't finish. The lack of accessibility, the financial burden, the traveling and waiting times are all barriers for many patients. Also, so many patients felt like they had no idea if they were even improving outside of clinic hours, and that their therapists couldn't measure their progress in between sessions.
We realized that smartphones could be used to help improve the quality of care. Smartphones are all around us, but are barely used to their fullest potential. This became our mission - to use technology to help people lead healthier lives. So, we decided to combine our expertise in sensors and AI [Artificial Intelligence] to develop a platform that does exactly that.
3. How does the app work?
All the patient needs to do to start is download the app and take a walk with the phone. OneStep immediately analyzes and provides feedback on their walk, empowering them with an understanding of their gait - showing them different parameters about their walk. Based on their specific recovery goals and gait analysis, OneStep’s expert therapists build each patient a personalized therapy plan!
Patients can perform their daily exercises at any time, or simply open the app and take a walk with guidance. Throughout their journey, patients can utilize OneStep to measure their progress in a quantifiable way, and to receive customized feedback from their care team, which motivates them to exercise better and recover faster.
Patients can meet with our expert therapists through video calls at their convenience. If a patient has their own PT, OneStep can send their analysis directly to their therapist.
4. What other services are available through your app?
Our app also includes educational content to learn about your gait! We have lessons to learn about step rate, balance and more so that you can more fully understand your condition and how to improve it! We also have an active facebook community for people using the app and a monthly newsletter with articles from our PTs, exercise videos and more!
5. What do you see as the long term implications of your app?
We hope to bring high quality care to all who need it by making physical therapy accessible and affordable.
6. How can patients sign up to be part of this beta testing and what will they get from it? Our entire physical therapy service is currently free to patients who download and use the app. They will receive digital physical therapy, personalized plans, access to our care teams and 24/7 support, all for free! All we ask in return is for your honest feedback so that we can make the service even better for future patients! Patients can simply download the app to get started! If you want to get started please use the following links to download the OneStep app and record a couple of walks: iOS - https://apps.apple.com/il/app/onestep-recovery/id1491372188 Android - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.takeonestep.android