Use of the remote care management platform, Mymobility with Apple Watch, led to positive outcomes for patients following knee replacement surgery, according to a new study.
Global medical technology giant, Zimmer Biomet, has announced the one-year data from its mymobility® clinical study.
The results are taken from a multi-centre, randomised controlled trial (RCT) to evaluate the impact of mymobility® with Apple Watch, a first-of-its-kind remote care management platform.
The data shows that using Mymobility with Apple Watch following primary knee arthroplasty, commonly known as knee replacement, can effectively guide rehabilitation, demonstrate similar outcomes to traditional care models and significantly reduce the number of outpatient physical therapy visits.
In addition, use of Mymobility with Apple Watch was associated with significantly fewer surgery-related emergency department visits, which could translate to lower costs of care.
The data was presented at the 2022 American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons (AAHKS) annual meeting.
What did the findings show?
The study evaluated 401 patients who underwent total or partial knee arthroplasty.
Patients were randomised to a Mymobility with Apple Watch exercise and educational platform group, or a control group who received traditional care.
Among the outcomes assessed at the one-year follow-up were Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score, Joint Replacement (KOOS, JR), PT visits, readmissions, and ED/urgent care (UC) visits.
Patients in the Mymobility with Apple Watch group who did not require adjunct PT had significantly higher KOOS, JR scores compared to controls at one year post-operatively.
Significantly fewer patients in the Mymobility with Apple Watch group required postoperative physical therapy.
Overall KOOS, JR scores were similar between control group and Mymobility with the Apple Watch group at one year.
The change in KOOS, JR scores from pre-operative levels were similar at one year for the control group and the mymobility with Apple Watch group.
Significantly fewer patients in the Mymobility with Apple Watch group utilised surgery-related ED/UC care compared to the control group.
Similar rates of readmission were observed between the Mymobility with Apple Watch group and the control group.
The benefits of remote care
Nitin Goyal, MD, chief science, technology and innovation officer at Zimmer Biomet, commented: “The past two years have brought into greater focus the benefits and conveniences of remote care, which is rapidly becoming the new normal for many people around the world.
“By undertaking a large randomised controlled trial comparing outcomes associated with a smartphone-based remote care model versus a traditional care model, Zimmer Biomet is proud to be at the forefront of efforts to validate platforms, like Mymobility with Apple Watch, as a viable alternative to the standard of care.”
David A Crawford, MD, one of the study’s lead investigators and a joint replacement specialist at JIS Orthopaedics in New Albany, Ohio, added: “We’re encouraged to find that positive early results from our 90-day analysis were sustained at the one-year follow up and continue to reinforce that a mymobility-based remote care regimen could yield comparable patient outcomes and potentially require fewer healthcare resources than a traditional care model.
“With smartphone-based remote care, patients tend to be more actively engaged in their recovery through access to real-time data to track their progress, and with the ability to communicate with their care teams more easily through messaging and virtual visits. In the study, these benefits may have contributed to lower utilisation of healthcare resources, which can result in cost savings per episode of care.”
