W-Move Smart

By using gamification Gymna International and the Dutch Embedded Fitness are joining forces to improve therapy adherence and keep healthcare affordable. The project that has been named W-Move Smart has received a Flanders – Netherlands CrossRoads project grant and is therefore subsidised by the European Union.

 Smart and Playful Rehabilitation

Anyone who has ever been prescribed exercises by a physical therapist knows that it is not easy to consistently perform these at home, and in the same way as explained by the specialist. The Dutch company Embedded Fitness and Flemish Gymna International are using gamification in their CrossRoads project to improve therapy adherence and keep healthcare affordable.

Low Therapy Adherence

Each year, there are about 46 million physical therapy treatments in the Netherlands and Belgium. However, the recovery process is slower than optimal because about 55% of patients fail to perform the prescribed exercises correctly and frequently enough at home. This leads to avoidable healthcare costs, which account for 8% of total physical therapy expenses. With a sharp increase in people with osteoarthritis, Parkinson's disease, and acquired brain injuries, the need for solutions to keep healthcare manageable and affordable is high.

Embedded Fitness is a Sports Innovator Center that develops interactive movement concepts to challenge people to exercise in a fun way. Gymna International specializes in the development, production, and distribution of high-quality rehabilitation solutions. The two companies are combining their innovative products to digitize and improve physical therapy care.

Playful Movement

Carla Scholten, Embedded Fitness: “Research shows that gamification is a valuable tool for promoting rehabilitation at home and improving therapy adherence. It makes exercising more fun and motivating, helping people perform activities better. In this CrossRoads project, we are digitizing Gymna's W-Move and integrating our SmartClips.”

“The W-Move is a hydraulic training concept from Gymna that supports physical therapy and rehabilitation by providing personalized and calibrated resistance during exercises. Our SmartClips are small, portable sensors that enable motion tracking and gamification for a wide range of therapeutic exercises and training. By connecting the SmartClips sensors to the W-Move, we can collect real-time motion data during use, allowing for monitoring and adjustment of the training. The ability to store detailed data about patients and measure their progress over time is crucial for providing effective care.”

Impact

Jochen Jaspers, Gymna International: “Our focus is on promoting prevention, participation, and efficiency within healthcare, using technologies to achieve higher quality and efficiency, thus relieving the workload on healthcare professionals and increasing patient satisfaction. By developing innovative solutions, we can not only improve the quality of care but also contain healthcare costs.”

“In this project, we are specifically focusing on elderly patients with hip or knee surgeries as a target group for testing and research, but the intention is to eventually connect our ‘W-Move-Smart’ with other digital health platforms and wearables. This will make the system expandable and scalable for various healthcare providers and patients.”

Subsidy

Subsidy amount: €249,999.99 ERDF support

Project partners: Gymna International and Embedded Fitness

Provinces: Limburg (BE) and North Brabant

Theme: Health