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features

People: Isabel Van De Keere, Immersive Rehab

CEO and founder, Immersive Rehab

Published in Health Club Management 2017 issue 9

Immersive’ is the buzzword in fitness at the moment, as gyms and suppliers strive to find new ways to make people forget they’re exercising. Now, healthtech entrepreneur Dr Isabel Van De Keere is applying the same principle to the area of rehabilitation.

Last year the former medical technology consultant founded Immersive Rehab – a startup that creates virtual reality (VR) games designed to increase the effectiveness of physical rehabilitation after injury.

“Traditional physiotherapy is quite boring for the patient,” says Dr Van De Keere. “People get demotivated and frustrated.”

On the gym floor
This is particularly true for injured gym-goers. Many are non-compliant with the physiotherapist-prescribed exercises they need to do to get back into action – further delaying their recovery. But Dr Van De Keere believes that the introduction of VR machines in gyms could change this.

“When physios give patients an exercise to do at home, most people don’t do it. But if there was a physio clinic in the gym, with VR equipment, people might be more motivated to do their prescribed exercises there. That way they can still go to the gym, so they don’t lose their routine. They won’t be doing their normal programme, but they’ll be getting rehabilitated in a fun and engaging way.”

Dr Van De Keere explains that with virtual reality games, patients become motivated to challenge themselves further than they would in a normal physio session.

“You can really mix up the way exercises are delivered,” she says. “And because patients are inside the virtual environment, they feel empowered. It takes them out of the white-walled, clinical environment and puts them somewhere new and interesting. It also gives them a sense of control over their surroundings.”

VR in the future
While Dr Van De Keere’s software is currently aimed at helping patients who have suffered from neurological trauma, such as stroke, traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury, she has also worked with athletes including Paralympic rower David Smith, and says the potential for treating sports and exercise injuries is high.

“For athletes who are injured and can’t be out there playing their sport, it can be depressing. In VR they can be on a virtual football pitch, for example, doing their rehab exercises with a virtual ball. It strengthens their mental state and is more motivating than doing those exercises within the four white walls of a physio clinic.”

Unsurprisingly, Dr Van De Keere is also a big believer in VR as a tool to get people more active.

“The headsets will become more comfortable and will be more like normal glasses at some point. It will take some time but it’ll happen,” she says.

“Then we’ll be able to have people on the exercise bike or the treadmill who are immersed in an environment, like the mountains. Looking at a TV screen that’s showing a forest won’t make you feel like you’re there. But VR can.”

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features

People: Isabel Van De Keere, Immersive Rehab

CEO and founder, Immersive Rehab

Published in Health Club Management 2017 issue 9

Immersive’ is the buzzword in fitness at the moment, as gyms and suppliers strive to find new ways to make people forget they’re exercising. Now, healthtech entrepreneur Dr Isabel Van De Keere is applying the same principle to the area of rehabilitation.

Last year the former medical technology consultant founded Immersive Rehab – a startup that creates virtual reality (VR) games designed to increase the effectiveness of physical rehabilitation after injury.

“Traditional physiotherapy is quite boring for the patient,” says Dr Van De Keere. “People get demotivated and frustrated.”

On the gym floor
This is particularly true for injured gym-goers. Many are non-compliant with the physiotherapist-prescribed exercises they need to do to get back into action – further delaying their recovery. But Dr Van De Keere believes that the introduction of VR machines in gyms could change this.

“When physios give patients an exercise to do at home, most people don’t do it. But if there was a physio clinic in the gym, with VR equipment, people might be more motivated to do their prescribed exercises there. That way they can still go to the gym, so they don’t lose their routine. They won’t be doing their normal programme, but they’ll be getting rehabilitated in a fun and engaging way.”

Dr Van De Keere explains that with virtual reality games, patients become motivated to challenge themselves further than they would in a normal physio session.

“You can really mix up the way exercises are delivered,” she says. “And because patients are inside the virtual environment, they feel empowered. It takes them out of the white-walled, clinical environment and puts them somewhere new and interesting. It also gives them a sense of control over their surroundings.”

VR in the future
While Dr Van De Keere’s software is currently aimed at helping patients who have suffered from neurological trauma, such as stroke, traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury, she has also worked with athletes including Paralympic rower David Smith, and says the potential for treating sports and exercise injuries is high.

“For athletes who are injured and can’t be out there playing their sport, it can be depressing. In VR they can be on a virtual football pitch, for example, doing their rehab exercises with a virtual ball. It strengthens their mental state and is more motivating than doing those exercises within the four white walls of a physio clinic.”

Unsurprisingly, Dr Van De Keere is also a big believer in VR as a tool to get people more active.

“The headsets will become more comfortable and will be more like normal glasses at some point. It will take some time but it’ll happen,” she says.

“Then we’ll be able to have people on the exercise bike or the treadmill who are immersed in an environment, like the mountains. Looking at a TV screen that’s showing a forest won’t make you feel like you’re there. But VR can.”

Sign up here to get Fit Tech's weekly ezine and every issue of Fit Tech magazine free on digital.
Gallery
More features
Editor's letter

Into the fitaverse

Fitness is already among the top three markets in the metaverse, with new technology and partnerships driving real growth and consumer engagement that looks likely to spill over into health clubs, gyms and studios
Fit Tech people

Ali Jawad

Paralympic powerlifter and founder, Accessercise
Users can easily identify which facilities in the UK are accessible to the disabled community
Fit Tech people

Hannes Sjöblad

MD, DSruptive
We want to give our users an implantable tool that allows them to collect their health data at any time and in any setting
Fit Tech people

Jamie Buck

Co-founder, Active in Time
We created a solution called AiT Voice, which turns digital data into a spoken audio timetable that connects to phone systems
Profile

Fahad Alhagbani: reinventing fitness

Alexa can help you book classes, check trainers’ bios and schedules, find out opening times, and a host of other information
Opinion

Building on the blockchain

For small sports teams looking to compete with giants, blockchain can be a secret weapon explains Lars Rensing, CEO of Protokol
Innovation

Bold move

We ended up raising US$7m in venture capital from incredible investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures, Primetime Partners, and GingerBread Capital
App analysis

Check your form

Sency’s motion analysis technology is allowing users to check their technique as they exercise. Co-founder and CEO Gal Rotman explains how
Profile

New reality

Sam Cole, CEO of FitXR, talks to Fit Tech about taking digital workouts to the next level, with an immersive, virtual reality fitness club
Profile

Sohail Rashid

My vision was to create a platform that could improve the sport for lifters at all levels and attract more people, similar to how Strava, Peloton and Zwift have in other sports
Ageing

Reverse Ageing

Many apps help people track their health, but Humanity founders Peter Ward and Michael Geer have put the focus on ageing, to help users to see the direct repercussions of their habits. They talk to Steph Eaves
App analysis

Going hybrid

Workout Anytime created its app in partnership with Virtuagym. Workout Anytime’s Greg Maurer and Virtuagym’s Hugo Braam explain the process behind its creation
Research

Physical activity monitors boost activity levels

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have conducted a meta analysis of all relevant research and found that the body of evidence shows an impact
Editor's letter

Two-way coaching

Content providers have been hugely active in the fit tech market since the start of the pandemic. We expect the industry to move on from delivering these services on a ‘broadcast-only’ basis as two-way coaching becomes the new USP
Fit Tech People

Laurent Petit

Co-founder, Active Giving
The future of sports and fitness are dependent on the climate. Our goal is to positively influence the future of our planet by instilling a global vision of wellbeing and a sense of collective action
Fit Tech People

Adam Zeitsiff

CEO, Intelivideo
We don’t just create the technology and bail – we support our clients’ ongoing hybridisation efforts
Fit Tech People

Anantharaman Pattabiraman

CEO and co-founder, Auro
When you’re undertaking fitness activities, unless you’re on a stationary bike, in most cases it’s not safe or necessary to be tied to a screen, especially a small screen
Fit Tech People

Mike Hansen

Managing partner, Endorphinz
We noticed a big gap in the market – customers needed better insights but also recommendations on what to do, whether that be customer acquisition, content creation, marketing and more
More features