Kayo is a Wisconsin-based technology business focused on the design, development, manufacture and distribution of objective measurement and tracking devices for the rehabilitation and physical therapy market.
Kayo has created a rehabilitative hardware device (the kiio™) which accurately measures applied force and timing during assessment and therapeutic exercises. kiio is highly portable (the size of your fist) and interfaces wirelessly with software (kiio FLEX™) enabling Physical Therapists (PT) to assess patients and track their exercise regimens.
According to the APTA (American Physical Therapy Association), 85% of PTs express a strong desire to improve skills relative to Evidence Based Practice (EBP) to increase overall efficacy rates. The center for Medicare and Medicaid further reports that “The concept of EBP marks a shift among health care professionals from a traditional emphasis on actions based on the opinions of authorities which guide clinical practice to an emphasis on data-based, clinically relevant studies and research.”
The most commonly used patient assessment method is Manual Muscle Testing (MMT) which is subjective on a scale from 1-5. An alternative is to add an objective assessment device known as a hand-held dynamometer (HHD) costing approximately $1000 with no automatic recording or integration capabilities. HHD is superior to MMT in objective readings, but neither approach provides reliable results across different PTs or when the patient has a mechanical advantage over the tester due to superior strength of the patient or the muscle being tested (eg. tester arm vs. patient leg).
Five fundamental reasons why kiio FLEX is a superior product solution to the existing state-of-the-art include:
1 PTs currently use subjective assessments known as manual muscle testing MMT.
kiio FLEX automatically records accurate objective patient performance data.
2 Prescribed PT routines are shown with 2D printouts that do not provide ample information for proper performance and movement which not only compromises progress, but safety.
kiio FLEX provides a motion 3D animated library demonstrating form, range of motion, patient specific targets, and limits for proper performance and safety.
3 Data collection for patient analysis is manual, and either inconsistent or very expensive requiring the presence of a PT.
kiio FLEX collects consistently accurate objective data and wirelessly populates a secure cloud based database for storage and analysis by the PT.
4 Compliance is only tracked through office visits and the patient honor system.
kiio FLEX can track compliance anywhere via automatic data collection.
5 Today there is no analytic workbench for doctors, physical therapists, insurance companies, or patients. The result being extreme difficulty in correlating practice to efficacy.
kiio FLEX is designed to make the entire value chain more efficient and effective.