Speaker 1 00:03
With information on the latest developments in assistive technology and initiatives, from the studios of 2RPH in Sydney, RPH Australia brings you AbleQuest. Hello, I'm Marnie Roper. With all the will in the world, exercise can be boring and it's difficult to stay motivated. But there is a simple and fun tech solution to monitor, motivate and engage people as young as 4 and as old as 94 to help the chances of therapy goals being met. The device is called LúcioMate, a physical therapy gaming controller with wearable sensors which connect via Bluetooth.
LúcioMate was awarded best assistive technology product in the 2023 Australian Disability Service Awards. The device can be attached to any part of the body and users can play any of the 26 plus games to develop fine or gross motor skills. Justin Keenan, CEO and co-founder of LúcioRehab, explained that the device was fun, portable and like having a physical therapist in your pocket. Elaine Jontek spoke to Justin. Welcome to AbleQuest.
Speaker 2 01:23
Thank you very much Elaine, thank you for having me.
Speaker 3 01:26
So Justin, what does Lucio Rehab do and can you tell us about LucioMate?
Speaker 2 01:33
Yeah, so we started developing wearable tech to gamify physical therapy initially for children with disabilities, but now our clients range in age from 3 up until their 90s, but effectively the product Leaster makes for anybody with the need to move their body, so with a physical impairment or you just need to move your body for exercise, Leaster makes just small wearable senses that gamify that movement.
Speaker 3 02:02
Physical exercise is usually very boring. When I get in the gym, I have the TV on, just to pass the time while I'm on my bike. But it sounds like a game is a lot more fun than that.
Speaker 2 02:13
Yeah, precisely. I think it's certainly gamification is nothing new, but I think in the world of physical therapy, making it accessible for all. What we did was develop an app which we downloaded from the Apple store or from Google Play. And then for individuals doing their physical therapy, they're also connected to their videos or occupational therapy as well. So it's extending clinical governance into people's homes and then people own their journey more because they're engaged, they're having fun and typically they'll just forget that they're doing boring exercises and lose themselves in an interactive and immersive experience.
Speaker 3 02:51
So you mentioned your clients can be children and if you can get a 94 year old who understands an app it can even extend into aged care.
Speaker 2 02:59
Precisely, yes. You know, we had our own assumptions when we started developing it. Certainly we knew that our initial clients were helping children with cerebral palsy. We knew that that cohort of clients would engage with games. When we started working with the adult population, we had assumptions that maybe they wouldn't like games, but let's say that humans love to play games, so regardless of age or diagnosis, we have clients with a full spectrum of age of life and that it just turned out to be more of an interactive experience. It's been amazing.
Speaker 3 03:33
So you've described it as a tech solution to monitor and motivate and engage the clients. So you don't have to be tech-savvy.
Speaker 2 03:42
No, so I think if you're able to use a mobile phone and for those that can't operate a mobile phone on their own, we have a therapy support team that connects and trains family members, loved ones, carers, support workers. So we're trying to lower the barriers to adoption with physical therapy and making sure that people can access the tech in person almost. So that was all woven into our tech development to make it really accessible for all.
Speaker 3 04:10
And what kind of clients do you have, and how can games help them?
Speaker 2 04:14
So we have clients whose young age is three with cerebral palsy and then every kind of diagnosis or physical diagnosis in between, such as stroke, Parkinson's, motor neurosesies, brain injuries, spinal cord injuries. Even clients now on the spectrum who may have low muscle tone, but even for those who just need to do general exercise, the defense can work for them as well. So it's not only for those with real fine motor needs. So imagine post -stroke, you know, the usual move your fingers or some three or four degrees. Our wearable sensors can pick up even the smallest active range of motion and turn that into a game all the way through to people who are doing star jumps, pick ups, press ups, that type of thing. So it really is a universal product that could help everybody.
Speaker 3 05:05
So you attach the sensors to your body and then you play the game. You have your iPhone up and look at the screen and play the game or your iPad.
Speaker 2 05:14
Yeah, exactly. iPads, iPhone, they even have kind of screen mirror, their mobile device onto a large smart TV as well. But the whole premise around it is extending clinical governance into people's homes. So imagine Elaine on your physio, or occupational therapist or exercise technologist, I can create you as an individual, a best folk exercise plan. When I create that remotely, it will automatically populate your experience at home, then you start doing your exercises or your therapy. And then myself as a physio or therapist can simply see your data and adherence to that physical therapy. So it's breaking down the barriers to distance and access to care, those types of things.
But for the clinicians and therapists out there, it means that they can now see real evidence and data on what is happening between clinical appointments. So our aim is to improve health care efficiency by promoting and motivating clients to do as much therapy from home, but safe in their knowledge by following the clinically provided exercise plan as well.
Speaker 3 06:22
So if you're doing the exercises the wrong way, or not at all, the physiotherapist or occupational therapist will know what's happening.
Speaker 2 06:29
Yeah, precisely. So, we've seen actually a wonderful thing here where it's digital innovation but what we love is that it's extending the human touch. So again, if I'm seeing you face the beta lane and then you know that I have access to your therapy and I can change it remotely as well so it's going to make it harder or easier depending on your condition but you know that as a professional, you know that I'm able to monitor you. You're better connected to your therapy team but also motivated because you know I can see your data as well so that it really promotes people to own their journey a bit more as well.
Speaker 3 07:03
So you may not need to make the appointments every week with your physio. You can use that half an hour and travel time and actually doing the exercises.
Speaker 2 07:11
Yes, precisely so. I think it's always good to do it under the guidance of a physio, OT or EP. Think about the costs within schemes like the National Disability Insurance Scheme. There's hundreds of millions of dollars that's spent each year on travel. This is one way that we can make efficiencies in this and people are able to do two or three physical therapy sessions between their clinical appointments and the outcome will be better as well. So it's a tick in every box.
Speaker 3 07:42
So Justin, how did it start? Who was Lusio?
Speaker 2 07:46
Well, Lusio, a means play in Latin, originally developed by my business partner, he created a very early stage prototype after an interaction with a child with cerebral palsy and then since then we've worked with cerebral palsy a lot here in Australia and countless neuro experts and come up with brain injury and spinal injury therapists to effectively build and design the technology together. So rather than us developing it in our lab here in Sydney, we took the clients on our journey. So thousands of clinical experts and now thousands of individuals were born and required to still have their injury on that journey to make it a really inclusive product but effectively design by them and for them.
Speaker 3 08:33
So it started off with one child. I think his name was Arshia.
Speaker 2 08:37
Arshia, that's exactly right, and then said it blossoms firmly here in Australia as a proud NDIS provider but we've also had a great deal of interest overseas as well so we're now in eight different countries overseas and still growing but it's a wonderful story of collaboration here in Australia with clinical experts but also powered by the national disability insurance scheme as well which often gets a lot of bad press but without Australia and the lives of those with living with a disability and their loved ones would be completely different so we should celebrate that as well.
Speaker 3 09:13
So what is your relationship with the NDIS? It sounds like you find them very helpful for your clients.
Speaker 2 09:19
Well, yeah, I think it's a wonderful government policy, and one of probably the best one I can think of. But effectively, we're an NDIS provider. So anybody that has a, seems to have a born or acquired disability will receive funding from the National Disability Insurance Scheme, and we're a low-cost provider within that. So if people would benefit from our tech, they can simply request the funding, and then it's paid for via the NDIS. So it's there to improve the lives of the people in Australia, thanks to me.
Speaker 3 09:52
So does the patient or the client, can they keep track of their goals as well? Will this data or is the data only to be understood by the experts from the medical people?
Speaker 2 10:02
No, absolutely, it's available in touch of a button via their mobile phone or tablet. The data is just as important for them, you know, imagine again, if I use you as an example, Elaine, if you can see how many reps you've done, what your personal best is maybe, even a particular game, even interaction with other players around the world as well. Some individuals like to compete, so we're developing, you know, inclusive leaderboards and people can compete against each other overseas and so it's really breaking down barriers that people are in in a similar position, building a good community, but also owning your journey a bit more by seeing your data, what improvements in your range of motion may be. It's a powerful thing, so whilst the veneer of the least of eight experiences games and fun, it's a class one medical device, so with a real serious mission.
Speaker 3 10:57
What's the game that's the most popular or the most fun?
Speaker 2 11:00
That's a great question. So, favorite game at the moment is probably a basketball game, which is the oldest game we've had. So, but the, some of the games we've developed, and this is some of the, again, when I talk about assumptions and the way that we develop content as well, is that we developed a game that calls Raccoon Rescue, which is for, typically we've developed it for clients between the ages of three and four years old, and it turns out that's the most popular game within our age care community. So, there's content that we believe we're developing for a particular demographic, but what's this outlet that will be used, it just takes on a life zone. Yes, it's beautiful to see, there's moments like that where it really transcends communities and demographics.
Speaker 3 11:42
So in an aged care community they can be playing basketball from their beds.
Speaker 2 11:47
Yeah, we have an aged care home where they set up a boot camp where they were doing exercises and they had a couple of Luso make sessions set up. So some of these individual residents would be having to do physical therapy, but others just wanted to get out of their chairs and move their body. When they were standing out of their chair, they were then shooting a ball into the basket in basketball. So it's a game of five fun for anybody.
Speaker 3 12:13
So where can we find out more about LusioMate?
Speaker 2 12:17
So you can visit our website, which is LusioRehab .com. I'll spell that just for your listeners. That's L -U -S for sugar, I -O, rehab dot com. And there's a contact out page there, or simply if people are interested, reach out to the show, or they can email me - justin@lusiorehab.com ...
Speaker 3 12:39
Justin at Lusio dot...
Speaker 2 12:41
rehab dot com.
Speaker 3 12:42
And lusiorehab is all one word.
Speaker 2 12:45
It is, yeah.
Speaker 3 12:45
That sounds good. Is there a 1300 number as well that you'd like to mention?
Speaker 2 12:50
Yes, you can contact us directly on 1-300-1-LUSIO, that's L -U -S -SUGAR -IO.
Speaker 3 13:01
So this sounds like a great device. It's almost like a therapist in your pocket, doesn't it?
Speaker 2 13:07
Precisely, we like to think of it as your physical therapy in your pocket, so if you have a mobile phone or a tablet and a small wearable sensor, you could effectively do your physical therapy or occupational therapy anywhere.
Speaker 3 13:20
So it travels as well.
Speaker 2 13:22
It does, yeah. It's a very small pack. The sensors are super, super light and small, so they're using for that fine finger dexterity exercise. It's really effective, but yeah, you could pop it in the bag and take it anywhere.
Speaker 3 13:34
Well thank you Justin for telling us all about it and once again congratulations on winning the award for Best Technology Product.
Speaker 2 13:44
Thank you so much Elaine, and again thank you for having me.
Speaker 3 13:47
And I've just been speaking to Justin Keenan, CEO and co-founder of Lusio Rehab. He was telling us about LusioMate, which was announced as the best assistive technology product in the recent Australian Disability Service Awards.
Speaker 1 14:16
You have just been listening to AbleQuest, a program that looks at developments in assistive technology. Thank you for listening, and goodbye till our next program.
