Professional Partnerships

Doctor Kinetic is serious fun – but definitely not a toy.

We all know that regular physical exercise is essential for a healthy body.

That’s particularly important after injury or illness. Regular exercises are key to building back lost functions as well as improving our well-being.

As professionals, we also know the real practical problems with rehabilitation.

• The exercise machines are big, bulky and often very expensive (tens of thousands of Euros). How quickly will these investments pay for themselves?
• Patients find traditional machines a chore (and bore) to use. Only a few of us really enjoy working out – and this is not usually the core group of people that visit physiotherapist clinics. Where is the incentive to improve?

Michal’s Professional Case Study

Michal is a licensed physiotherapist.  He uses Doctor Kinetic as a versatile exercise machine in his clinic.

“Let me stress that this system has been designed to assist the professional, not replace them. In the trials we have done in two countries, patients very quickly get the hang of the game and much prefer it to traditional machines. Remember that unlike mechanical exercising machines, the games are continuously variable, so they can get faster as the patient takes the course of treatment. The games can be fine tuned to closely match the individual patient recovery programme – not too fast too soon, but not too slow so they get bored. You can adjust the pace to suite all ages and body types.

And because the games remain a challenge and all be played on the familiar console, patients really like using them. They are focused on playing the game – it’s not a chore, it really is fun. Those smiles say it all.”

“I use Doctor Kinetic to improve the efficiency of my clinic, while at the same time making maximum use of the face to face time with my patients. They use the machine to practice on. It gives all the feedback directly on the screen. I use the clinic time to explain the procedures and give feedback on their performance. Working together with Doctor Kinetic means I can focus my time on patient care rather than just supervising exercise sessions. The machine tracks the patient’s progress in detail, automatically. And the patient’s response to this approach has been overwhelmingly positive”.

Three Brand New Worlds

In 2012, we developed three new “worlds” for the Kinect platform.

1. A fantasy world. This is the platform where patients learn the exercises. Each game starts with a warming up phase before the exercise begins.
2. Basketball Game. This world is much faster and more dynamic. The aim here is to practice what you’ve already learned, trying to beat your previous score. Copy the exercise (such as side stepping). If you do it at just the right pace, you’ll shoot the ball and get it in the basket.
3. Flying Boat Race.  Your’re in the flying boat and need to move the vehicle in all different ways in order to gain bonuses. These games offer at balance training.

Within each world we have developed a suite of games. The difficulty level and speed are continuously variable, so that these games can be played by all ages. Other worlds are in development for 2013. The games follow different exercise routines, but they have a few things in common.

The games do not require the patient to read written instructions. You simply switch on the computer, select the game from the menu and then follow the visual instructions on the screen. We use a combination of figures and written commands which appear on the screen. These instructions are currently available in English and Dutch. Adapting the games for use  in other languages is simple  and fast.

Doctor Kinetic offers this software on a subscription service. Updates to the games come via the web, in the same way that apps on an iPad or Android Tablet are updated. Interested in become a partner during our launch in the Netherlands? Contact us today for more details. You’re under no obligation.

Always in the Driving Seat – Feedback for the Professional

 

Of course, the professional is able to both set the number and repeat frequency of the exercises as well as monitor performance by the patient. The Doctor Kinetic dashboard (some people call it a back-office) gives extensive reports on what went right and wrong and chart’s each patient’s progress.

Privacy

Our software is not capturing any images, just performance stats through body movements, so there are no privacy issues associated with playing the games. This makes the system ideal for both home use and at the clinic. Data is kept secure. Patients are kept happy.