The FeaL App

Ankle injuries after inversion trauma are common, and they can have serious consequences. Although physical therapy has been shown to decrease the risk of re-injury, physiotherapy is rarely prescribed. In addition, impairments in function and activity after ankle inversion trauma vary widely, rendering “One-size-fits-all”-interventions ineffective. Instead, independent, personalized rehabilitation could help patients return to work or sport more efficiently and reduce the risk of chronic disability.

We are developing an App aiming to provide exactly that – accessible, individual treatment after an acute and chronic lateral ankle sprain. The app consists of several phases, such as educating users, assessing injuries, and providing customized training plans. Notifications and gamification of the intervention help the user’s adherence to their program. To adapt to the user’s needs, injury-specific information, patient-reported outcome measures (e.g. pain level), anatomical measures as well as training developments are fed into the algorithm to provide a wholistic and personalized training program. While the framework is based on statistical analysis and decision-making algorithms, it is still easy for health experts to adapt or update the app’s behaviour if needed.

This app is designed to be used independently or accompanied by health professionals, providing the user with important information about their injury and recovery status. In addition, the health-related data stored by the system can also become a useful tool for future research.