Justin Keenan Is Gamifying Physical Therapy

Name: Justin Keenan

Company: Lusio Rehab

What are you building and whom does it help?

We’ve built and continue to develop LusioMATE, a physical therapy ecosystem app with wearable sensors. The sensors attach to any part of the body and connect via Bluetooth to an ever-growing number of fun exergames created to entertain and motivate players through their tailor-made physical therapy programs. The app provides real-time feedback and full remote monitoring capability ideal for telerehabilitation.

With the LusioMATE app being available for all Apple/Android devices and smart TVs, it’s a super versatile physical therapist in your pocket, usable in the clinic, at home, anytime, anywhere.

A group of any age or physical capability that requires physical therapy (PT) to rehabilitate and/or improve quality of life, with a range of motion from 5 degrees, as prescribed by physical therapists, can benefit from LusioMATE.

We are proud that we’ve been able to help clients aged from 4 to 94 achieve their movement goals, arising from a range of diseases, disorders, life stages, and health goals.

The ecosystem can help improve outcomes in musculoskeletal injuries, stroke, autism (ASD), Parkinson’s, chronic pain, aged care, traumatic brain injury, spinal injuries, multiple sclerosis, weight management/fitness, cerebral palsy, oncology, and motor neuron disease.

What has been the biggest challenge so far and how did you solve it?

We have had numerous challenges, and, at the time, each felt like the biggest one. I could chat about tech design and development, but there’s a broader challenge that affects 2.4 billion people on the planet right now. 

It’s the challenge of adherence to PT, whether you’re a child born with a disability or have acquired a disability through a stroke or an accident at work. The fact remains that low adherence affects all of us. One in three people will at some point in their life require physical PT.  How do we motivate an individual to perform PT from home and extend the reach of our clinical experts?

With six years of constant client engagement, feedback, and tech evolution, we have developed the world’s first truly inclusive physical therapist in your pocket, allowing for rehabilitation without boundaries.

What tool or app could you not live without and why?

That is a difficult question to answer because there is so much that we rely on. If you asked the Lusio Tech team, each would definitely give you an answer different from mine.

From a commercial perspective, it would have to be a toss-up between the various virtual meeting tools we have used over the last couple of years and the CRM we use. The latter part of 2020 and the first six months of 2021 saw us undertake a huge migration/build of Lusio Rehab in Salesforce. It was a massive undertaking for a small startup team, as you can imagine, but what it has done in terms of organizing our business and providing a foundation for us to grow and manage our customer base is something that we simply could not live without.

What marketing strategies have worked for you?

We use a number of social channels, as well as email outreach to market LusioMATE.

For example, Instagram has been an excellent platform for us within the pediatric community. We have been fortunate enough to work with some wonderful families and service providers with excellent profiles on Instagram, and these partnerships have greatly benefited the profile of LusioMATE.

On the B2B side, we use LinkedIn a lot to reach key decision makers in service provider businesses and to open a conversation about their using LusioMATE to improve the way they work.

In the early years, we used email marketing as the main thrust of our marketing effort, and while we still do, the above platforms have taken a big chunk of the focus over the last 12-18 months.

What’s the best specific piece of advice you have for other entrepreneurs?

Stay focussed on the core problem you’re trying to solve. There’s a great deal of noise in your early days and within the startup ecosystem as a whole. Take your potential clients on this journey with you, partner with them, and develop a product or service that recognizes the unique needs of your customer base.

Get out there and test your assumptions. Evolve your offering.

What does your company’s trajectory look like over the next five years?

We’re at a very exciting stage of our journey as LusioMATE is being used across all age and diagnosis groups. Interest from insurance/case managers and employers to improve back-to-work rates through low-cost, sustainable tech has proven the need for LusioMATE outside our core focus of disability. The overriding benefits to individuals and the broader health economy are real.  

We’re focused on continually improving our offering through the advancement of our innovation, which sets us apart from our competitors, and new experiences being launched every six weeks means LusioMATE remains relevant to someone throughout their rehab journey.

The trajectory of growth over the next five years is jaw-dropping, and if we continue to exceed our customers’ expectations and focus on our core mission and values, we will see Lusio Rehab as a mainstay within global healthcare.

Want to be interviewed just like this? Fill out this simple form.