Zimmer, Apple Powers Up mymobility® With Video Options

Zimmer Biomet’s mymobility^® with Apple Watch^® remote care management platform now has a video visit option which allows for patient-doctor video appointments.

With this new option, patients and physicians who are connected via mymobility, can view patient history, recovery progress and mobility metrics together. And with the addition of the pain management tracker, patients can also enter postoperative pain levels and pain medication intake so that physicians can adjust the pain management regimen, monitor compliance and be aware of any signs of medication overuse.

Jared Foran, M.D. co-author of a recent study involving the new platform that was presented at the International Society for Technology in Arthroplasty (ISTA), told OTW, “Clinicians have envisioned using mobile technology to improve patient outcomes, decrease costs, and to provide the ability to obtain extensive real time data, which was previously only able to be obtained on a small scale and under expensive specialized laboratory conditions. The mymobility project has allowed us to do all of that and more.”

Foran’s study, “Feasibility of Passively Collected Gait Parameters Using a Smart Phone Based Care Platform Following Total Hip and Knee Arthroplasty,” is planned for publication at a later date.

Dr. Foran is director of Joint Replacement Surgery at OrthoColorado and St Anthony Hospitals

The best orthopedic care is…fine-tuned.

“The data that we present provides strong evidence that this exciting technology can collect accurate gait metrics on a large patient population,” said Foran. “This may allow orthopedic surgeons to begin to differentiate, and even fine tune, which operative and patient factors are important in improving patient recovery after hip and knee replacement.”

OTW asked Robert Kraal, VP and general manager of Connected Health at Zimmer Biomet to elaborate on the genesis of mymobility. “More than a year of living under a global pandemic has accelerated the adoption of connected health technologies as health care professionals looked for new ways to communicate with and treat patients. And, according to recent media reports, remote care is a trend that will continue even as we emerge from the pandemic. To help clinicians and patients navigate this new normal, we evolved our technology to include synchronous video capabilities and pain management tracking that allows surgeons to manage patients by exception and contextualize orthopedic video visits while helping patients avoid in person office visits.”

“Healthcare providers have realized the difference that personalized data can make to optimize patient outcomes. We are providing doctors and care teams with the data they need to make the most confident decisions for each patient. Doctors can look at metrics like gait quality, walking speed or reported pain levels to gauge how a patient is doing in the weeks and months after surgery. They can pay closer attention to patients in a remote setting and intervene if and when needed. The wealth of data—and the fact that providers can actually make informed decisions from that data—is what truly makes this platform so exciting for them.”