The problem
Post-op range of motion is a pivotal metric, but it's hard to track remotely
Through interviews with orthopedic surgeons and in collaboration with our team of physical therapists, we identified the following main problems:
Limited visibility
Clinicians lose visibility between appointments, so stiffness can progress unnoticed.
Inconsistent measurement
Providers often "eyeball" measurements instead of using precise tools.
Barriers to access
Patients face travel costs, missed appointments, and scheduling delays – yet early intervention on poor range of motion is pivotal.
The mymobility app
The mymobility app supports patients through orthopedic recovery from home while providing clinicians continuous data to track and guide their progress.
mymobility patient app and apple watch
Clinician app for monitoring patients
Removing access barriers
With camera based skeletal tracking, patients can measure their range of motion from home.
Now clinicians can provide guidance from anywhere.
Early prototypes
With camera-based skeletal tracking, any patient can measure their range of motion from the comfort of their homes
Effective onboarding
Effective onboarding was critical as patients had to learn specific body positioning, camera setup, clothing, and background requirements for accurate measurements.
1. Clothing
Wear a solid shirt and shorts. Your shirt should not cover your hips, and your shorts should not cover your knees.
2. Minimal background
Make sure your background is clutter-free and the lighting in the room is not too harsh.
3. Stay in the frame
When recording, position yourself so that your entire body is in the frame.
4. Volume on
Make sure your phone’s volume is turned as loud as it can be so that you can hear instructions and advice during the assessment.
Timely feedback for a novel experience
How do you guide elderly patients from several feet away? I designed for severely limited screen visibility at distance, using large bold text, full-screen color changes, and audio feedback to communicate system status and provide clear guidance.
Function > form. Ensuring legibility and clarity at a distance was of utmost importance.
Custom notifications for low-performing patients
Through my research, I found that clinicians have varying thresholds for concern, so mymobility empowers them to create custom alerts specifying which measurements at which timepoints warrant attention and action.
We also allowed them the ability to review the measurements so they could verify the details and detect any visual abnormalities asynchronously.
How the alert appears to clinicians
The outcome
Positive first impressions and a published white paper
The early feedback has been very positive, marking the feature as a long-awaited solution to the infrequent and inefficient measurements of the past.
Zimmer Biomet has published a white paper on it as well, which you can read here.
"I see huge potential with this feature and I am excited to see the potential benefits from it."
– Practicing orthopedic surgeon