Health apps gain pace - 18th October 2021

In Sweden, there has been a pronounced surge in the use of apps designed to alleviate chronic health conditions over the past 18 months.

Stockholmer, Ewa-Lena Rasmusson, had her mobility transformed over lockdown with a Swedish app expressly created to ease joint pain. She is prompted by a daily 'nudge' to do a five-minute series of squats and leg lifts, while online videos demo correct techniques. The app provides ongoing training which is rejigged in response to user feedback on challenge and pain levels. Users are given access to a real-life physiotherapist and to video call check-ins as well.

Ms Rasmusson, who's been afflicted with knee pain for some time, reveals ,"I can really feel the difference." Having been capable of doing only a meagre number of squats at the beginning of the treatment back in March 2020, she can now proudly perform "up to 21".

Joint Academy, co-founded by Leif Dahlberg, a professor of orthopedics at Lund University, and his son, Jakob, launched in 2014, with the goal of advancing treatment for osteoarthritic conditions.

Joint Academy's popularity forms part of a wider boom in specialist digital healthcare provision. A range of apps, including ones to assist with high blood pressure and migraines, have also enjoyed considerable success.

The Swedish Internet Foundation states that around one fifth of people made use of an app in autumn 2020, with one in 10 being retirees.

Not everyone has jumped on the bandwagon however, and Sofia Rydgren Stale, chairperson of the Swedish Medical Association comments, "It is important to define what kind of care and which types of treatments can be handled by digital apps, and what care and which treatments need to be handled by seeing a doctor at a health centre or hospital."

Nevertheless, Jakob Dahlberg is emboldened by findings of the firm's 10 peer-reviewed clinical studies, in which University of Nottingham research concluded that those patients using the app saw pain levels fall by 41% after six weeks, whereas those receiving traditional care reported just 6%.

"It works. There's really no more need to argue than that: the data speaks the truth," says Jakob.