Developing the Next Generation of Health Tech Apps

Let’s Set The Scene...

Agile Kinetic’s vision is simple: to use technology to make healthcare better. They approached Big Lemon to help build MobilityHub - a healthtech app that will help patients to manage their recovery beyond the clinic. Here’s what happened.

“20 years ago, following an orthopaedic procedure, you would have been given a flyer with generic information about your recovery. This piece of paper would tell you about exercises to complete.

“Depending on the procedure you may not have further contact or you’d be expected to attend multiple appointments. Unless there is an emergency, patients do not see their physios that often which means small and underlying issues could go unnoticed”.

That’s Peter Bishop, founder of Agile Kinetic.

He first approached Big Lemon to see if there was a way to tackle this challenge and take on the legacy approach to monitoring orthopaedic recovery through face to face appointments.

The Challenge

This was a perfect challenge to take on for Big Lemon, especially as our mission is to build products that leave the world in a better place.

Over a five month period, we worked with Peter’s team to create the first version of a tool that would potentially impact millions of people.

Creating A Health Tech App... That’s Just Like A Physiotherapist In Your Pocket

Big Lemon collaborated with Agile Kinetic to build MobilityHub, a postoperative tool that supports, monitors and manages patients beyond the clinic.

Agile Kinetic is driven by helping anyone, anywhere to become and stay active. For this mission to be achieved, MobiltyHub needed to fulfil the following brief.

It needed to be:

• 

  Designed for the majority, usable and engaging for as many patients as possible

• 

  Available on a smartphone - thus reducing the need for strapped-on sensors or premium technology.

To address these requirements, the team discussed some big challenges such as how to build the app for older devices.

Then there was figuring out the logistics of how to enable patients to take a photograph of their body using their device. Where would the device need to sit in the room to take the right picture?

The Tech Bit

The Big Lemon team developed the first iteration of the healthtech app ready for a number of pilots, already arranged with organisations in Wales and England.

This involved:

• 

  The design and development of patient iOS and Android apps which act as a companion for recovery, providing notifications and ability to log information

• 

  A real-time cloud dashboard for clinicians, which allows them to collaborate with other specialists and recommend exercises

• 

  Artificial intelligence (AI) pose estimation to indicate a patient’s range of motion.

Owen Richards, co-founder of Big Lemon explains how it works:

“We use technology to indicate and monitor the same patient reported outcome measures (PROMs), and other information gained through a physical appointment.

Now, patient updates are visible in real-time, using the bespoke cloud dashboard, filling the void between physical appointments when small but potentially important issues could go unnoticed”.

The Outcomes

MobilityHub provides patients with a sense of ownership of their recovery. This solution is ready to replace that flyer with personalised and adaptive advice, including daily tasks that would guide a patient through every step of rehabilitation.

For healthcare professionals, they’d be able to see how patients are recovering in real-time.

How has it been received by its users?

When we asked one of the physiotherapists signed up and using MobiltyHub, they said:

“My patients love it, which is everything! They love the reminders, enjoy the clean and clear images and videos, and love how slick it is. It’s also nice to be able to progress clients remotely” - MD, Agile Kinetic Customer

Why Big Lemon?