Treating chronic pain phases with an AI-powered app

The treatment of chronic and acute pain phases centers on the patient’s pain profile. The treatment strategies must be flexible to facilitate customized adjustments. The AI-powered pain treatment solution by medicalmotion offers support and makes individualized exercise recommendations to manage the individual needs of pain patients with neuromusculoskeletal disorders.

At last year's MEDICA, Mr. Klimpel delivered a presentation titled "AI-based exercise recommendations with a new approach to treat chronic and acute pain phases" as part of the MEDICA MEDICINE + SPORTS CONFERENCE. In this post-MEDICA 2021 review, he talks about the steps it takes to treat chronic pain phases effectively.

Mr. Klimpel, how does the medicalmotion platform work?

Sven Klimpel: Our AI-powered and CE-I certified medicalmotion app supports pain patients with neuromusculoskeletal disorders. This covers acute and chronic pain on the musculoskeletal continuum from head to toe. The app is prescribed by the treating physician or made accessible by the health insurance provider. The first step in the registration process is a medical history questionnaire in which patients indicate the areas that cause pain on a human body graphic. Users can specify up to 56 different pain locations with the corresponding pain types and combinations of pain. This delivers the foundation for a targeted and safe treatment plan. Based on the context and provided data, the patients receive recommendations from the proprietary medical AI technology of the medicalmotion platform. These recommendations center on treating chronic pain with multimodal methods. This includes guided fitness exercises in the form of videos that are customized for the respective patient with specific daily instructions such as stretching or breathing exercises. The goal is to offer patients accessible and easy at-home support. Informative content such as podcasts also gives users the chance to assess and understand the source and root-cause of the pain.

How does the platform collaborate with doctors, therapists, and health insurance providers?

Klimpel: We work with health insurance companies that reimburse the patients' costs. Their aim is to provide better support to the insured and facilitate preemptive treatment before the pain worsens. We also teamed up in a project with the Federal Ministry of Health in Berlin-Brandenburg, in which physiotherapists used our platform to successfully support their sessions. The project ran for twelve months, and the results will be published later this year. The project collected data pertaining to the patient exercises, occurring problems and developments. One fascinating finding indicated that almost 90% of patients with back pain also suffer from simultaneous pain in other areas. Nearly 50% of the participants initially had low back pain, but then exhibited entirely different discomfort over the course of the treatment. The findings reveal new insights into the everyday life of pain patients and underscore their need for digital support as pain is dynamic and keeps changing locations, meaning it is rarely static and centered in one spot. That is why it is essential that our AI-based pain therapy platform can adapt to these changes and fosters collaboration with therapists and physicians to identify serious disorders in the early stages.

How can the app benefit the performance and recovery process in professional sports?

Klimpel: Professional athletes have different load profiles. The different types of sports differ in daily training routines and body strains, which also means there are different associated stress injuries and pain areas. Especially small clubs cannot necessarily provide sufficient on-site medical attention to all athletes at any given time. In this setting, an AI-powered app is a helpful and effective tool because it can adapt to the respective pain profiles and subsequently speed up recovery from sports injuries.

Is there still room for improvement as it pertains to your AI-based platform to treat chronic pain?

Klimpel: After nearly four and a half years of development, our AI solution can dynamically adapt to changes in patients, covering over 100 diseases and their combinations. Having said that, we still hope to gain an even better understanding of patients and the type of therapy they need at specific junctures and identify the patterns and habits in daily life that lead to the different types of pain and illness. The goal is to provide targeted support at an even earlier point. We also want to further improve communication with physicians and therapists. After all, only a targeted information-processing approach creates added value and continually improves treatment outcomes.

How did you like MEDICA 2021?

Klimpel: For us, the trade fair primarily serves as a networking event and provides a great opportunity for making exciting new connections. We learned a lot from the presentation we were a part of and the other speakers, which also fostered discourse on the respective issues. I particularly enjoyed MEDICA’s science and research direction, which explored medical technology on a much deeper level. We already look forward to seeing everyone next year.