The Game Changer of Physiotherapy towards Arthrosis Prevention

Project Information

PANDA

Grant agreement ID: 815657

DOI

10.3030/815657

Project closed

EC signature date 9 May 2018

Start date 1 June 2018

End date 30 September 2018

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

SMARTR
France

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PANDA (The Game Changer of Physiotherapy towards Arthrosis Prevention)

Reporting period: 2018-06-01 to 2018-09-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Each year, there are more than 6.6 million documented knee injuries requiring physiotherapy and/or surgery. This number increases, especially in Europe and North America, as the world population grows older. For example, in the US, there are over 250,000 anterior cruciate ligaments (ACL) related injuries. In France, there are 58 ACL surgeries per 100,000 inhabitants. In Norway, the incidence is of 88 ACL injuries per 100,000 inhabitants, while in other Scandinavian countries, it is of approximately 46 per 100,000 inhabitants.
Our product is a smart self-learning technology in supporting the rehabilitation process for knee injuries, & prevents relapses. The product is a smart knee brace linked via BLE with a mobile application offering a quick diagnosis tool & faster adjustments of rehabilitation process.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Our tasks focused on technical, commercial & financial feasibility of our product. The work was divided in 3 tasks, with activities such as:
- Technical feasibility: we analyzed the User Interface (UI) of the application, durability of the knee brace & self-learning algorithms. We improved UI usability, & added extra features to the knee brace.
- Commercial feasibility: we analyzed target markets & competition through bibliographic & field research. We concluded first pre-series sales.
- Financial feasibility: realized a 3-year forecast of revenues and costs, together a willingness-to-pay analysis. Improving also our go-to-market strategy.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Compared with SoA technologies, we found that, by employing self-learning algorithms, we increase the speed at which feedback to and from physiotherapists is offered. Data collected is fully under patient control. The physiotherapist receives data, collected by the knee brace over a certain period, not just one session of therapy. Compared to current technologies, this offers a quicker diagnosis tool, higher reliability, & possibility of controlling therapy sessions based on patient feedback.
The economic impact is twofold:
- The price, as a flat fee, is small (350 Euros TTC), allowing higher usage. In France, there will be the possibility for patients to be reimbursed for the device.
-By increasing the usage of the knee brace, it can also be an increase in the number of patients (& revenues) per physiotherapist.
The social impact stands from the increase in rehabilitated patients &, through the preventive care feature, currently in development, a decrease in the number of relapses.

Final product design for knee brace.