Kiio, DoD to Collaborate on Musculoskeletal Disease Treatment Project

(MADISON, Wis.)—Today Kiio Inc. announced the enrollment of the first human subjects in the company’s $1.3 million multi-year, multi-institutional Department of Defense project to develop and validate a novel protocol to assist treatment and risk assessment for chronic tendinopathy.

“Our goal is to provide a fast, cost-effective, portable protocol to inform treatment, determination of work-readiness, and prediction of injury for servicemembers as well as the general population,” Kiio CEO David Grandin said. “We are honored to be working with a stellar team of collaborators and look forward to making a substantive contribution to an issue that places a tremendous burden on our military in terms of cost, productivity and quality of life.”

The technology combines Kiio’s clinically validated force sensor (Kiio Sensor®) with a software application that automatically guides the administration of the protocol and calculates and compiles complex muscle performance metrics.

The protocol, developed in collaboration with Dr. Patrick Grabowski, MPT, PhD (University of Wisconsin – La Crosse), will be tested with 318 participants in a trial overseen by the University of Wisconsin – Madison under the direction of Dr. John Wilson, MD, MS.

“Chronic tendinopathy is one of the most common musculoskeletal diseases,” Wilson said. “There is currently no efficient, standardized, objective method to quantify tendon performance, and this is a significant limitation in our ability to assess treatment efficacy.”

Data analysis and modeling will be performed at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine by a team led by Dr. Kathryn Roach, PT, PhD.

“The Kiio technology is able to quickly capture a tremendous amount of highly-accurate data,” Roach said. “We will be analyzing this data to establish a normative database and generate a decision-making algorithm that can be utilized not only in treatment but also in risk assessment and injury prevention.”

About Kiio

Kiio’s health engagement platform enables both payers and providers to leverage evidence-based medicine, mobile patient engagement, telehealth and data analytics to deliver and monitor care tailored to each patient’s needs. Kiio’s innovative programs automate the process of screening, assessment, triage, and exercise for low back pain, total joint replacement, and rehabilitation. To learn more, please visit www.kiio.com

About the Award

This work is supported by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, through the DoD Joint Program Committee 8/Clinical and Rehabilitative Medicine Research Program Neuromusculoskeletal Injuries Research Award under Award No. W81XWH-16-1-0789. Opinions, interpretations, conclusions and recommendations are those of the authors and are not necessarily endorsed by the Department of Defense.

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Resulting Media Coverage:

Xconomy (July 20, 2017): “Kiio, Defense Department Team Up To Advance Tendon Disease Tech“
WisPolitics (July 20, 2017): “Kiio Tests and Develops New Protocol For Tendinopathy“
Wisconsin State Journal (Aug. 28, 2017): “Kiio’s injury-screening technology will get a military workout“
InBusiness (Aug. 31, 2017): “Kiio gets $1.3 million grant“
iHLS (Sept. 1, 2017): “Wireless Sensor Will Evaluate Army Recruits’ Fitness“