Client's challenge
Dr. prof. Kristoff Corten of orthopedic Surgeon of the European Hip Center & ZOL Genk
faced the challenge of building close communication loops with his patients in order
to have all necessary input to optimize the patient trajectory to his or her expectations.
The primary hurdle was the lack of a system to
incorporate patient-specific data into patient trajectories and recovery plans, limiting their ability to provide
truly personalized care and exercises tailored to each patient's journey.
Usually, the standard procedure for a hip complaint is surgery, which involves replacing the hip.
This is an expensive procedure (including for society) that is not always necessary.
Avoiding surgery through proper guidance (physical therapy, nutrition, psychologist,...)
can be an advantageous solution for the patient, the doctor and society alike.
The solution
Hipcloud introduced a revolutionary data-driven platform, empowering the hip surgeon and the hip coach to
elaborate optimized patient treatment strategies. This platform gathers and analyzes individual patient data,
maps this on a large historical big data warehouse of patient pathways and uses datamodels and algorithms to
generate personalized insights that enable them to fine-tune the treatment and exercises to each
patient's unique needs. In addition, the HipCloud also wants to ensure that, in case surgery is unavoidable,
the patient is optimally prepared for the procedure in order to make the recovery afterwards as short and
pain-free as possible. To convince the patient to join the proposed trajectory, the HipCloud must be able to
visually represent the evolution with reference to similar patient trajectories in the past. That way,
there is an objective, scientific basis that the medical team can use to convince the patient and also follow up during the trajectory.
Crucial in this process is the close communication with the patient who must have a direct link with the hipcoach
to assist and support him with any question throughout the trajectory. In order to do so, a chat functionality
is also built-in in the hipcloud application.
The result
This approach significantly enhanced the treatment experience for hip surgery patients, offering a path to quicker,
more comfortable recovery tailored to their personal health parameters. The platform fostered a deeper
collaboration between patients and the hip surgeon's team, ensuring care plans are both effective and aligned with patients'
capacities and goals. The HipCloud web application is primarily used by the hip coach and surgeon to:
- Support them in the pathway consultation
- Review and analyze the patient feedback
- Work out the patient trajectory with appropriate exercises
- Persuade the patient to follow a particular pathway.
- Establish a direct communication link with the patient.
- Create a network of kinesists who follow the same methodology and principles.
In addition, the hipcloud is also the patient's resource during the treatment process.
Here he can find all the information about his treatment program, the procedure itself,
his exercises throughout the program, communication with the hip coach, etc.
The HipCloud is also the channel through which patient feedback can be captured at any
time during the program.
In the future, there are possibilities to extend this project to other pathologies.
Since the concept of data-driven treatments can add value to various medical fields.
Hipcloud's initiative stands as a testament to the power of innovative technology in transforming patient care.
Together, they have set a new benchmark for personalized healthcare, particularly in the realm of
post-operative recovery, by prioritizing patient-specific data and care customization.
The partners
Codana and EpicData are our implementation
partners in the hipcloud project. Codana focuses on the implementation of the hipCloud platform, while Epicdata uses its experience
in data to build the data warehouse in the cloud on top of the Microsoft Azure platform.
