• The key to rehabilitation exercise DTx is content… Expect synergy with iPixel home training experience and technology – –

• Professor Park Joong-hyun of Gangnam Severance Hospital said, “It will contribute to improving public health as an aid to hospital exercise therapy.”

[Medical Newspaper/Daily News = Reporter Jeong Gwang-seong] While the development of DTx is becoming more active due to the development of technologies such as ICT and AI, an expert’s opinion that this can be used to solve the unmet demand for rehabilitation exercise is attracting attention.

Park Joong-hyun, professor of rehabilitation medicine at Gangnam Severance Hospital <photo>- said this during a recent meeting with a medical newspaper.

 Currently, rehabilitation exercises are being performed in various fields of rehabilitation medicine, including central nervous system lesions, peripheral nervous system and muscle diseases, amputation patients, and sports rehabilitation. In particular, patients with spinal and joint pain before and after surgery and patients with sarcopenia, which has recently become an issue, must undergo rehabilitation. 

It is known that exercise is necessary. According to Professor Park Joong-hyeon, rehabilitation exercise is not fundamentally different from regular exercise, but the difference is that the doctor diagnoses the intensity, area, and type of exercise through various evaluations and tests and applies it in a customized way to the patient.

This is to diagnose the patient’s exact condition and provide accurate treatment. The priority of rehabilitation exercise varies depending on the condition, but the reality is that many patients exercise because they mistakenly believe that the information floating around online is suitable for them. 

In most cases, these patients’ problems are resolved by visiting the hospital and receiving treatment from a rehabilitation specialist, but the system that provides treatment within the hospital cannot provide rehabilitation exercise treatment to many patients, so there are cases where they do not receive sufficient treatment. That there is another problem that exists. 

Accordingly, Professor Park paid attention to the rehabilitation exercise DTx. He said, “It is best to receive treatment through a visit to the hospital, but there are times when sufficient treatment cannot be provided due to time, distance, waiting for an appointment, etc.” He added, “I am confident that many patients can receive help if DTx is used.” 

In fact, in overseas countries such as the United States and Germany, Hinge Health (USA), Sword Health (USA), and Kaia Health (Germany) form a network through physical therapists after surgery and diagnosis by medical staff to provide in-hospital and on-site education and AI operation at home. We provide a service that combines cognitive exercise therapy. 

Join forces with iPixel to solve ‘unmet demand for rehabilitation exercise’ in Korea 

With the market experience he gained through home training to solve the unmet demand for domestic rehabilitation exercise, he worked with iPIXEL and accurately understood the inconveniences consumers (patients) faced when using the service and the type of service desired by medical staff, exercise experts, and physical therapists. I caught it. 

Professor Park said, “There are similar types of services, but most of them consist of simple home training or are launched only for medical purposes and are difficult to expand.” He added, “iPIXEL provides convenience for patients to use through a large smart TV screen and a doctor-patient service.” “We have an exercise blocking prescription system tailored to each condition,” he explained. 

iPIXEL’s real-time AI home training service and exercise prescription system within EMR. iPIXEL’s real-time AI home training service and exercise prescription system within EMR. iPIXEL provides exercise services on large screens such as smart TVs and provides AI feedback to resolve the inconvenience of using services using small screens such as smartphones when exercising. 

Reflecting the opinions of medical staff, we have built an exercise blocking system tailored to doctor’s prescriptions and an exercise prescription system within the EMR through app calls without personal information issues. Here, starting with about 50 waist and 40 neck and shoulder exercises developed directly through Samsung Life Insurance’s Barobody Project in 2019, in 2020, a spine recipe called Spine Recipe will be posted on Gangnam Severance YouTube so that you can follow it at home. 

It is expected that synergy will be created by combining the content and know-how of Professor Park Joong-hyeon, who has created an exercise combination that is effective in fusion surgery and laminectomy and is using it in his treatment. In addition, as a preliminary study, he conducted two studies, including an analysis of the effectiveness of providing exercise with a DTx-type system to patients with chronic low back pain and a method to increase the performance rate, and published them in a SCIE-level journal, and based on that experience, A review paper has also been published. 

He said, “In addition to technology, the core of rehabilitation exercise is content, and although we have created more than 100 exercises, it is not enough.” He added, “The same exercise is divided into levels 1 to 5 in intensity or varies depending on whether tools are used, so it can be further divided into AI “The goal is to build a system that uses technology to make changes according to changes in the patient’s condition,” he said. 

Methods to increase compliance with rehabilitation exercise DTx include △prescription through the attending physician, △real-time feedback through an app, and △competition among patients using rehabilitation exercise data. Meanwhile, the technology will be commercialized and used in medical settings within 2 years. He also stated that he would allow it. 

Through DTx, we will reconsider awareness of rehabilitation exercise and improve public health. 

In addition, Professor Joong-Hyeon Park expects that DTx will help raise awareness of rehabilitation exercise and improve national health, and firmly draws a line against concerns that it may replace exercise therapy administered in hospitals. Professor Park said, “We have a principle that DTx cannot replace the 1:1 exercise therapy provided in hospitals. 

However, even if patients receive treatment at the hospital, they cannot visit the hospital every day and do rehabilitation exercises, so hospital treatment is not recommended.” He emphasized, “It will be used as an auxiliary method for patients who have difficulty visiting the hospital or on days when there is no visit.” He continued, “Since DTx uses health insurance resources, we would like to avoid long-term use for specific patients and improve public health by enabling lifelong exercise through iPixel’s exercise platform once a certain level is reached.” “Although awareness of the necessity has improved a lot, the absolute amount of exercise is still insufficient, so I hope that the perception of rehabilitation exercise will change through DTx.”