Physiotherapy in India has long grappled with challenges of patient adherence, therapist shortages, and limited access in non-metro regions. BeAble Health, through its gamified rehab solution ArmAble, is tackling these hurdles head-on by blending technology with culturally familiar, game-based therapy. In this conversation with Habib Ali, Co-Founder of BeAble Health, we explore how gamification is improving motivation, reducing therapy fatigue, and making quality rehabilitation accessible and scalable across India’s healthcare ecosystem.
1. How has gamification, through solutions like ArmAble, changed the patient adherence landscape in physiotherapy?
Gamification has turned repetitive rehab exercises into immersive game-like experiences. Rehab is meant to be repetitive but given the way society today is looking for instant gratification and how conditioned we are to it, gamification plays a big role in giving them that instant gratification by making the experience of the repetitive exercise a bit more engaging. This helps in improving motivation and adherence significantly. With ArmAble, therapy has now become enjoyable for a lot of patients. At some places, it’s also used as a reward mechanism. Patients now engage longer and are more consistent. This translates into faster and improved functional recovery. Most of the physiotherapy centers that use our products have reported a 20 to 40% increase in adherence compared to traditional solutions.
Fundamentally, gamification helps in motivation which thereby leads to engagement and it allows for active participation and satisfaction, increasing adherence.
2. In what ways has BeAble Health used culturally familiar tasks to improve therapy outcomes for Indian patients?
We have embodied culturally relevant activities that people can relate to and are instinctive in nature. For instance, one of the games we have is Kill Mosquito where the patient has a mosquito bat and there’s a mosquito flying around. Immediate instinct is to go ahead and zap the mosquito with the bat. These are the kind of games we have where we don’t have to instruct people to do a certain action. It comes instinctively. Another game we have is a dosa making game. People make dosas on a tawa and hand it over to customers.
The games are built over familiarity and comfort of our population. This reduces cognitive load and increases emotional connection. It also improves engagement, especially among elderly patients. Clients are more inclined to complete such sessions which relate to their functional activities as well. What they are trying to relate to is that they have done this activity in the past and now they are using it as a game. They also practice the games outside the rehab environment with a hope that they will be able to perform this activity again.
3. How does AI support personalized rehab protocols in your technology platforms?
Currently, we are not using AI personalising rehab protocols because we want to give the clinicians the power to do that at this moment. We are trying to use AI to analyse the data of the patient’s performance and provide that information to the therapist in a way which allows them to interpret and relate to easily. This helps them tailor the rehab protocols and personalise it as per their clinical requirements. The other place where we use AI is in our games, there is a certain intelligence embedded in the game to respond to the patients game play by making it challenging or easy as per their performance in the session.
4. What specific challenges in India’s rehabilitation ecosystem are your products addressing?
In India’s rehabilitation, we are addressing specific challenges
- Poor Patient to therapist ratio: For neurological patients there is one therapist for 17,000 patients. When we have a product which saves time for the therapist and also engages the patient, it is a win-win situation for both.
- Lack of awareness: There is a lack of awareness regarding physiotherapy rehab in India. We are trying to spread awareness about physiotherapy and rehab by bringing modern solutions and technology adaptations so that people do not perceive it as pseudo science. Now, they have data and evidence to back physiotherapy. This is the way we are trying to bring in awareness.
- High cost barrier of quality rehab: We are trying to bring down the cost by introducing products and also by bringing in business models which can help physiotherapy centres onboard such solutions by giving them hardware leasing option and a low capex entry model.
- Repetition fatigue: In rehab, the primary aspect is the number of repetitions we are going to perform, and beyond a point it can become monotonous. This is a concern for both the therapist and the patient. To avoid this, we are trying to come up with solutions which can address all of these.
Ultimately we are trying to build an ecosystem which is scalable . A combination of hardware and AI driven software that comes together and provides an ecosystem for both the centres and therapist. This can help track therapy and also allows the patient to take it forward accordingly.
5. What has been the feedback from physiotherapists and hospitals using ArmAble?
The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, therapists appreciate the objectivity and the real time data which the device provides. Also, the kind of games that it offers and how it helps physiotherapists track the patient’s recovery more precisely. Patients have reported high engagement and motivation to perform therapy and we have seen anecdotes where patients have been more active in therapy. Patients are also more voluntary with regard to visit and see more meaning into what they are doing. Patients have also mentioned that the game disengages them from pain and engages them into movements. A key differentiator among these centres is their adoption and provision of tech-enabled care solutions.
6. How do you envision the next phase of growth for gamified rehab tools in tier 2 and 3 healthcare markets?
We see a massive potential in Tier II and Tier III where rehab access is not as common in tier one cities. Our focus is to bring in models where therapists can start adopting BeAble solutions and use the app for providing remote therapy. We are also looking at how we can scale our penetration into these markets and train people who are running these rehab centres to run tech-enabled high quality rehab centres by providing the necessary tools and systems that can help them skill their practice. As people are looking to decentralise healthcare both globally and in India, we are positioning ourselves in the right place and looking to lead a digital first rehab across India.
