Curovate selected as part of the SMart Inclusive Living Environment (SMILE) project for ageing in place

by Nirtal Shah - Physical Therapist

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Image by Michael Kim from Corelens via Canva

Let me explain this very long title above! As you may already know, Curovate is a physical therapy app that provides at-home rehabilitation for people before and after knee replacement, hip replacement, knee and hip strengthening, knee osteoarthritis, hip osteoarthritis, core stabilization and anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury and surgery recovery. Curovate is a mobile app that guides a person through their daily physical therapy exercises via videos, tracking their recovery progress and allowing the person to measure their knee or hip range of motion. Curovate was first released in 2016.

So how does this fit in with ageing in place and what does this even mean? There is a global movement to allow older adults to live their lives at home. There are several reasons for this: 1. Living in a care home such as a nursing home is very expensive for the person and for the healthcare system, 2. Older adults are happier and healthier when they are able to live at home, 3. Living at home preserves an older person's independence. For these and many more reasons there is a collaboration between the European Union’s (EU) Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) called the SMILE e-health project. The SMILE e-health project is a consortium between CIHR and the EU Horizons 2020 to develop and test novel e-health solutions across 4 pilot sites and living labs. This means that e-health or digital health solutions will be assessed to determine if they meet the requirements of helping older adults age at home. This testing and assessment will be done in collaboration with the people who actually use the technology, namely older adults. The 4 pilot sites are located in Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, and Canada.

Curovate was one of 23 e-health or digital health solutions selected to be part of the SMILE platform. To see all 23 digital health solutions click on this link. Curovate was selected as a solution that can help older adults and their caregivers with their physical therapy before and after knee replacement, hip replacement, knee osteoarthritis and hip osteoarthritis. The next step may be that Curovate is selected for a pilot test in one of the 4 living labs to research the feasibility, utility and effectiveness in allowing older adults to age in place following knee and hip replacements.

Conclusion

Curovate was selected as a digital health solution that can help people before or after a knee replacement or hip replacement with their daily exercises, progress tracking and most importantly to keep them independent at home. The SMart Inclusive Living Environment (SMILE) project for ageing in place is a consortium between the European Union’s (EU) Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research that has selected Curovate as one of 23 digital health solutions for ageing at home. We are very proud to be selected and we hope to continue helping people recovering at home after surgery and injury. Download Curovate from the links below and start your at-home recovery.

If you need further customized assistance during your surgery or injury recovery check out our Virtual Physical Therapy page to book your 1-on-1 video session with a physical therapist.

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References

1. Curovate Physical Therapy App website

2. European Union’s (EU) Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program website

3. Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) website

4. Curovate on the SMILE platform website

5. SMILE dashboard with a list of all 23 digital health solutions that were selected