patients, either adults or children, will probably not follow their
home regime. They find the exercises boring, maybe even painful.
Sometimes, the results can’t be seen after a given period of time;
therefore, they will lose interest in the exercise. For adults, fitting
in another task into their busy lives might also be a factor.
P: How does MIRA engage all ages and encourage adults
to play their way to recovery?
C: Our mission is to “motivate people to get better in a faster,
easy and fun way.” We want to give patients reasons to follow
their physiotherapist’s treatment and exercise at home in order to
get better quicker. All physiotherapists agree that patients are
more likely to get better if they follow their exercises, but some
patients lack the motivation
to exercise. We’re building
several gaming environments for patients of all ages
to perform the exercises
their therapists’ recommend.
They are not complicated
gaming worlds, we’re just
putting a visual and an
audio field around the
movements for patients to
see the progression and how
their exercises are projected
on a screen—these interactive fields may include a bee to collect
pollen, a submarine to study artifacts, an auction house game,
and so on. While patients play, MIRA tracks their performance to
provide not only the simplistic data so patients can understand
how they are progressing, but also a comprehensive report to their
physiotherapists so they could adjust the treatment accordingly.
P: What advances are being made in the area of physical
therapy?
C: I believe the biggest change will come toward treatments at
home. Currently, physiotherapists work with patients, teach them
exercises and help them recover. The difficulty is in the home
treatment. No matter how much physiotherapists work with
patients, it is up to the patients to follow the home treatment and
get better. As such, solutions like MIRA will help physiotherapists
prescribe and monitor their patients’ home treatment and will
incentivize the patients to exercise, to help them get better
sooner.
P: After traveling to clinics across Europe and the United
States to promote MIRA, what new information have you
gathered in the field of physical therapy that will aid
patients and therapists?
C: When we started developing MIRA, we decided to make
sure it is an application therapists would use with their
patients. Everything we develop is based on our partners and
clients’ suggestions. We obviously speak to patients as well, to
see what gaming environments they’d like to see, as well as
how challenging and motivating they find the games. However,
most of the feedback we have implemented has been from the
specialists who know what would be best for their patients.
The most interesting concept we see is how physiotherapists
come up with new ideas
to use MIRA, to engage
patients
in
their
treatment. For example,
some of them would
have patients sit on a
physiotherapy ball while
playing to challenge their
balance. Others would
have patients play with
weights so it can be
more challenging. It’s
quite interesting for us
since we’ve designed MIRA as a tool for therapists.
P: Do you envision your technology getting integrated into
other fields, including the spa and wellness industry?
C: Our current focus is to develop a product for people in need
of therapy, people who need to exercise to recover their mobility
and get back to their normal lifestyle. We are more than happy to
have MIRA used in the spa and wellness industry, should
specialists or therapists think it’s a great tool for them. We have
big plans for MIRA, including expanding it with all sorts of
exercises and games, which will hopefully be of interest in the
wellness industry to help people stay fit. n
WANT TO READ MORE about the young
innovator? Click here and find out which book
is on his reading list.
June 2016
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