San Diego-based remote physical therapy company Reflexion Health today announced the launch of two digital rehabilitation products: the VERAHome for post-acute care physical therapy patients, and the VERAClinic for their clinicians.

Both products are built upon the framework of VERA (Virtual Exercise Rehabilitation Assistant), Reflexion’s FDA-cleared platform, avatar assistant-driven program that guides users through their exercises with video capture, real-time feedback, and communications with a guiding clinician. The two new launches retain the adherence-focused design of their predecessor, but include new tools focused on education, information management, and workflow, Dr. Joseph Smith, CEO of Reflexion Health, told MobiHealthNews.

“We’ve been listening very carefully to clinicians and patients and understand that there’s kind of a sequence to their questions and potential concerns,” Smith said. “So we built out, using an avatar, a sequence of what we call ‘VERA Interactions’ in the VERAHome, and they’re meant to provide just-in-time to patients as they get themselves ready, get their homes ready, for the at-home part of rehabilitation.”

Alongside these educational features and a more modern design for the program’s on-screen avatar, VERAHome’s new patient-focused features is multi-language support, starting with Spanish, and the capability for patients to self-report any questions, concerns, or difficulties within the system. The system’s hardware has also received a facelift, and according to Smith is much, much easier for families to install in their homes without needing assistance.

“[The system] used to be about 35 pounds, and it was wheeled in and we had to install it,” Smith said. “We’ve really taken a fair look at that and shrunk it down. It’s now about 15 pounds, it’s now shippable instead of installable, so patients pull it out of the box, plug it in, and turn it on. It’s automatically internet-connected, and it takes them through a bit of startup.”

On the clinician side, VERAClinic revamped interface that allows them to more easily review patients’ progress and spot any potential hiccups during recovery.

“[Clinicians] had some feedback for us about how to make it so that the things that are most important show up first,” Smith said. “They can have one-button click to review the parts of a patient’s exercise program where they might have a challenge, so they can see if they’re having discomfort doing those exercises.”

Smith said that early testing and deployments of the two new products have had strong feedback, and that the company is confident that their updated take on in-home rehabilitation will be well received by patients and providers alike.

“We’ve had people in our offices playing with the new kits, we’ve taken them to people’s homes and watched them unbox it. We wouldn’t be going forward if it wasn’t all moving smoothly and people were loving it,” he said.

Reflexion Health spun out of the West Health Institute around the turn of the decade to explore how Microsoft’s Kinect could be used to power digital physical therapy programs. Although Microsoft killed the motion-tracking camera late last year, Smith told MobiHealthNews that the company has been exploring other hardware options, “many with form factors and performance characteristics that lend themselves better to our specific applications.”