MUJO has successfully registered its connected healthcare technology with the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) as a Class II Medical Device to assist the diagnosis and treatment of a range of musculoskeletal injuries and disorders affecting the shoulder.
MUJO’s smart therapeutic devices and cloud software will soon be available across the US to provide an objective record of baseline shoulder function and rehabilitation progress for physical therapists to monitor online, while helping patients adhere to their prescribed exercises.
The connected health technology (classified under product code IKK) utilises a proprietary dual-plane loading system (US2014057761) developed in the mechanical engineering department at Imperial College London, that for the first time trains complex joints such as the shoulder, and in future the hip, knee and spine, over their full range in a controlled environment.
The digital patient and clinician interfaces, which provide real-time visual feedback on performed movements via integrated iPads, were developed in collaboration with The Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust and The University of Manchester Health eResearch Centre (HeRC) with funding from Innovate UK ‘Digital Health in a Connected Hospital’ competition during 2015/16.
“Physical Therapy in the United States is a $30bn market and growing at 7% per year yet it remains highly fragmented. Historically, providers have been restricted in their ability to scale due to the direct relationship between personnel costs and revenue under a traditional one-to-one treatment model. Technology, in particular connected devices, opens up the potential for a one-to-many treatmet model which can offer providers a strong advantage in this competitive market.”
Douglas Higgins, Founder of MUJO.
The MUJO system is currently used to benchmark and rehabilitate Olympic athletes with the English Institute of Sport, and was recently shown to effectively rehabilitate patients awaiting shoulder surgery for unresolved conditions including subacromial shoulder pain in an Integrated MSK Service in the NHS.
In a 9 month independent study conducted at RNOH Stanmore, the MUJO system was found to be acceptable by all patients and clinicians while reducing time spent with the therapist over the treatment pathway. The results of the study were presented at the UK Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) annual conference in November. A recording of the ‘Rapid 5’ presentation is available to view here: https://youtu.be/0vqX4Tevuh8
