No! I am a physical therapist and I wanted a way to make physical therapy accessible by people globally. I found that in my 20-year career as a physical therapist many people could not afford to pay for physical therapy. I created my company and app, Curovate, to allow everyone to have access to physical therapy.
The most challenging aspect is to make sure we are able to help people through an app while providing them with many of the things that they expect from health care. We are working in the area of mobile health, or mHealth, and we are constantly prioritizing health care access and people’s health care needs while delivering it through a technology solution. We are a health care company first and a technology company second.
Nirtal ShahNirtal Shah, the interviewee, is the CEO of Curovate. By profession, he is a Physical Therapist who developed Curovate when he faced challenges with his own recovery after surgery.
My favorite apps are Spotify, the NBA App, and a health app called Touch Surgery. The reasons for the first two are quite simple, I love music and I love basketball. I use Spotify for workouts or to just listen to good music with my kids. I have been a basketball fan my whole life so the NBA app allows me to watch highlights of my favorite team, the Toronto Raptors.
Lastly, and to be a bit nerdy, the Touch surgery app allows people to learn how to actually do surgical procedures. It simulates many of the most common surgical procedures and I use this with my patients to teach them about a surgery they are going to have. I think it is a really good resource and such a cool way to reduce anxiety and teach people about surgery.
I have been working in the area of mobile health since 2011. What you see in the App Store and Play Store has been 10 years in the making!
The main need I had in mind was access to physical therapy for people prior to and after surgery. I wanted people to be able to access daily exercise videos, be able to measure their knee or hip movements with just their phone, and track their progress all through our app. I wanted to bring as many aspects of physical therapy as I could to the person who needs it directly on their mobile device.
I think we are entirely focused on helping people and this makes us unique. There are apps that help people before and after surgery, but the difference is that you can only access these apps if you have had your surgery at a particular hospital. They are creating another barrier to access for people who have had surgery. These apps are reinforcing health inequalities where healthcare is only available to some and not to everyone who needs it. We are entirely focused on the people who need physical therapy after surgery or injury. Similar apps are not designed by physical therapists or with health care providers so they lack the health care expertise in their apps.
The thing I am most proud of is when we receive a review or an email from a person in India, or Sweden, or Zimbabwe or Australia that describes how our app has helped their recovery after surgery or injury. To know that we are able to make a global impact on access to physical therapy is what I am most proud of!
One feature I am really excited about is adding “chat with a physical therapist” to our app. We are working on a way to have chat built into our app which would allow people using our app to ask a health care question and have their question answered by a real live physical therapist. How cool would that be if you could chat with a physical therapist after surgery and have your concerns addressed and questions answered in real-time!
We would love for people who have had or are going to have surgery for their ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) a knee replacement or a hip replacement to try our app for their recovery. We always appreciate feedback and would love it if you could share our app with others who could benefit from using it prior to or after surgery. Also, as the CEO and a physical therapist, I love hearing from people who are using our app. I can be reached at [email protected]
About App:
SUBSCRIPTION BASED APP after a 5 day trial. Have you had an ACL injury or surgery, a Knee Replacement, or a Hip Replacement? This App, developed by a Physical Therapist with 20 years of experience, will help you reduce pain, motivate you to do your daily exercises, and keep you engaged with your recovery.
Curovate provides daily video-guided physical therapy exercises based on the best knee and hip surgery rehabilitation protocols and guidelines. The exercises within Curovate are based on the best evidence, as well as the clinical experience of a Physical Therapist with 20 years of experience.
Curovate can measure your knee or hip joint movements (i.e, range of motion), at home with no special equipment. Curovate requires nothing more than your phone to give you an accurate range of motion measurement in a few seconds - watch the video to see how simple it is! The app also provides progress tracking for every repetition and set of exercises that you complete, shows you your achievements daily, weekly, and monthly, and rewards you with badges for your hard work.
The ultimate goal of the knee and hip surgery is to return to the sports and physical activity you love and to get back to your normal life and Curovate can help you achieve these goals.
ACL Injury or Surgery - Curovate can be used by people after an ACL injury by selecting the pre-surgery option in the app, or if not planning to have surgery, by selecting the non-operative ACL option in the app.
Curovate is a physical therapy app for people who have had a patellar tendon graft or a hamstring tendon graft used to repair their ACL. Many people also have had a cadaver graft, or a graft taken from a deceased person, or a quadriceps tendon graft. All of the research states that the rehabilitation and exercises that people need to do after a cadaver or quadriceps tendon graft for an ACL repair are the same as a patellar tendon graft rehabilitation protocol.
Total Knee Replacement - This is when your entire knee joint is replaced with artificial parts. This is done for people who have osteoarthritis in their knee and they are limited by pain and inability to do their daily activities. If this is you, then Curovate can help.
Curovate provides specific daily and weekly physical therapy exercises to help you recover. You can also measure the exact angle or range of motion of your new knee joint to make sure you are meeting your goals and staying on track for your recovery. The joint replacement of your knee is just the first important step to achieving the pain-free function of your knee. Now it is crucial that you continue daily exercises to get stronger after surgery. You can do this by starting your knee replacement rehab at home.
The exercises in the app were developed from rehabilitation guidelines and knee replacement protocols all clearly referenced in the app and 20 years of clinical experience from a physical therapist. Tracking your exercise repetitions, sets, and overall progress is also done by the app so you don’t have to track your daily recovery on paper. If you have questions about if this app can help you after surgery, please email the physical therapist and CEO of Curovate, Nirtal Shah at [email protected]
Categories: Medical
Date: April 28, 2021
Developer: Nirtal Shah
About developer: Nirtal Shah, the interviewee, is the CEO of Curovate. By profession, he is ... Read more
Website: https://curovate.com/
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