Opendata, web and dolomites

Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - RemoRehab (Empowering the society with a cost-effective solution for remote rehabilitation)

Teaser

Fundamental challenges, which build prerequisites for our solution, include aging of the population, permanently increasing age of retirement as well as the cost pressure and the growing demand for personnel in public healthcare. Eventually, aging is one of the major societal...

Summary

Fundamental challenges, which build prerequisites for our solution, include aging of the population, permanently increasing age of retirement as well as the cost pressure and the growing demand for personnel in public healthcare. Eventually, aging is one of the major societal challenges in EU, which has already become a significant economic factor. One of three Europeans will be over 65 by 2060. In Finland, the number of over 75 years olds will more than double until 2040 from current 420.000 to 950.000. According to the Aging Report published by the European Commission in 2015, total government spending on pensions, healthcare and long-term care will increase by almost 20% between 2010 and 2060. As the population is getting older, societies need to pay more attention both to the preventive health care and for more effective rehabilitation. Sizeable economic costs caused to the society by unintentional falls and subsequent rehabilitation can be significantly reduced with the help of Physilect, which motivates seniors for self-driven physical exercises at home guided by a virtual assistant yet under close supervision of a rehabilitation professional.

We are targeting at commercialization of our products for global markets by exploring market opportunity created by the aging of population and a growing need for novel rehabilitation solutions. Our main objective for the near future is to make sure our business model is scalable and valid outside the domestic market. Actions implemented within RemoRehab proposal provide grounds for SME Instrument Phase 2 project, which will be mainly devoted to building distribution channels internationally.

Work performed

Within the scope of our Feasibility Assessment we conducted Market assessment, Technology assessment and Freedom-to-operate assessment. The following activities were implemented:

- Three pilots with different clinical focus
- Meetings and interviews with established market actors and key stakeholders
- Joint projects and diploma thesis with universities
- Negotiations with other technology providers aiming at finding synergies and complementary offering
- Negotiations with leading medical equipment wholesalers
- Participation to main events in the industry with own stands and presentations
- Participation to acceleration programs
- Assessment of global cloud infrastructure providers in terms of providing maximum flexibility and technical scalability
- Updated competitor analysis
- Enhanced business plan

Main outcomes of the Feasibility Assessment are as follows:

- Clarified definition of the clinical impact developed together with rehab professionals
- Clinical validation related to post-stroke rehabilitation using Physilect
- Streamlined value proposition for public healthcare
- New major product release
- Freedom-to-operate assessment
- Enhanced visibility among potential customers
- Deeper engagement with key market actors and stakeholders
- Streamlined product roadmap and modified pricing model
- Business Model Canvas for different market segments
- Product development roadmap
- Marketing roadmap
- Funding roadmap

The feasibility assessment project helped us to streamline our value proposition and find proper marketing focus for further business development. In addition to a first closed sales case, project has generated several warm leads, which will be further elaborated and most likely converted into sales cases by the end of year 2018. The company is now much deeper integrated into the healthcare landscape and much better networked with key market actors and stakeholders, including key opinion leaders and consultants. As a result of dissemination of RemoRehab project, Physilect was invited to participate in two EU-wide research initiatives in the field of rehabilitation technology.

Final results

The implementation of Physilect helps significantly decreasing the number of face-to-face meetings between the patient and the physiotherapist. This is our way to contribute to the sustainable development by avoiding unnecessary driving. Moreover, unlike the state-of-art remote rehabilitation solutions, which enable live video session between the professional and the patient, Physilect does not require online presence of the professional. So much wider societal impact can be achieved by multiplying professional’s resources to serve a large number of people in need of rehabilitation.

Physilect will keep developing the technology to expand the societal impact. The RemoRehab project helped us to further develop our product in terms of user experience for improved match with requirements of the target audience.

Website & more info

More info: https://physilect.com.