PrehabPal garnerered a top prize at the recent Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Healthcare innovation Competition.
For its pitch, Ooney demoed its online app for patients preparing to undergo surgery. By providing a selection of targeted exercises or routines, the company looks to reduce the chance of poor outcomes, explained founder Dr. Emily Finlayson.
“Every year, over 4 million operations are performed on frail older adults. That’s nearly 50% of all major high-risk operations in the US, and we know from epidemiology that older adults suffer complications at exponentially higher rates than their younger counterparts,” she said. “Research has shown that focused prehabilitation can improve outcomes after surgery, accelerate recovery, accelerate function recovery, prevent debilitating and costly complications and decrease hospital length of stay. … The problem is that this is an activity at that takes place at home, and has to have engagement at home.”