Trak is led by Jon Vital, Carlos Rodriguez Sierra and Daniel Soler, a digital platform that offers treatments to rehabilitate many injuries. Trak was founded in March 2020 and is currently aimed at hospitals, doctors and physiotherapists to meet the needs of patients. In this interview, Jon Vital will talk about Trak and other topics related to entrepreneurship.

What is Trak?
Trak is a platform for musculoskeletal injury rehabilitation software. We have two interfaces, one for the physiotherapist and the other for the patient, and the physiotherapist is the one who commands the exercises through the platform. We have a library of 200 exercises and the physiotherapist will pick and send the one that is best for the patient. The patient will then enter the platform and find the exercises previously submitted by the physiotherapist. From there, they go into rehab and develop an artificial intelligence algorithm that will continuously read how the patient is doing, track them in real time, and then report the data to the physiotherapist. What sets us apart is that the patient does not need a Trak to use his or her mobile phone or laptop, as our software can read and detect movements with the camera.

How did you come up with the idea?
Carlos and I are athletes and have been to the physiotherapist many times, and in confinement, we experienced the problem first hand. My father was confined and had a shoulder injury. We saw that he could not be rehabilitated in any way, that the rehabilitation process he was undergoing at the hospital was of no help, they did not contact him and he was left on ‘stand by’.

From there, we got to know artificial intelligence technology, the 'pose estimation' algorithms we're using, and Carlos and I, who are tech geeks, started to see the possibilities he offered us. Thus, we recognized that this technology could provide remote monitoring and support to the patient in order to provide quality rehabilitation. From there, we started creating a minimal version, started showing it to physiotherapists, and seeing that there was a lot of interest, we moved on.

How does Trak differ from other rehabilitation methods?
The most commonly used method today is to order exercise cards or sheets. What happens with this is that the patient does not fully understand what the exercises are, there is no communication between the physiotherapist and the patient and the patient does not know how to do these exercises well. He doesn't know if he's doing well or hurting more.

This means that only 30% of patients do these exercise sheets. On the other hand, according to the first tests we are carrying out, we have more than 70% of the treatment.

Therefore, what benefits does the use of Trak have for the patient?
We’ve talked to patients and what they like most about Trak is that they know they’ll be healed sooner with this tool. We give them a tool to do the exercises and they can get back to normal as soon as possible. In the end, we give them a quality exercise tool without having to go to the clinic, because the physiotherapist is creating exercises from behind, and they know that if something goes wrong, they can always ask questions, through the platform.

What kind of injuries does it treat?
Its range is quite wide, and we are focused on musculoskeletal injuries. The pathologies we treat are shoulder, lumbar, cervical, knee and ankle, and we treat all types of injuries within these pathologies. We also treat surgical patients, chronic patients and all those affected by these pathologies. We are also working with the Rheumatology Department. We have a lot of injuries to deal with and we are moving slowly.

How does it work?
Right now, Trak is aimed at health centers, physiotherapists and hospitals. A patient cannot enter on his own. Therefore, if the physiotherapy clinic or hospital uses Trak, the operation is as follows: the physiotherapist sends the patient a protocol for physical exercise from our library and tells him on which days he should perform the exercise; the patient would receive a memento on the indicated days, and would enter the platform. There, you will find the exercises sent to you by the physiotherapist, and by clicking on Start Exercises, you will be introduced to a gamified and fun experience that attracts you to exercise from home with all the exercises and corrections sent to you by the physiotherapist in real time. If the patient does not lift the shoulder or knee properly, our algorithm corrects it in real time and then we collect data from the entire rehabilitation session and pass it on to the physiotherapist to shorten that bridge between the physiotherapist and the patient.

Which health center do you work with?
Not only Ribera Salud, we are preparing for the launch in September. On the 13th of September, we will open the platform to physiotherapy clinics, with a larger volume, for the use of all physiotherapy clinics, and we are immersed in various studies, one with Osakidetza, Biodonostia and another with Asunción, Tolosa Hospital.

Has the pandemic exacerbated any injuries?
Yes. As I said, it is caused by teleworking and a sedentary lifestyle or caused by spending more time at home. What has been exacerbated by the pandemic is the use of this technology, and digital health in particular, physical exercise from home, rehabilitation from home, computer and others ... all of which has grown a lot.

What advice would you give to avoid injury?
We are accustomed to going to a physiotherapist when we have an injury, to doing manual treatment, who treats you to being a physiotherapist, and then not exercising at home. However, we have seen several studies that suggest that therapeutic exercise has the greatest impact on the end result of the injury. In addition to caring for and touching a physiotherapist, it is essential that patients perform exercises from home. Lately we are seeing a lot of physiotherapists and doctors who are betting on this, in therapeutic exercise, as a way to recover from injuries.

What is the best and worst way to start a business?
On the downside, though not so much, I’d talk about the responsibility you take on, the payoff, the investors you have to answer for ... and that’s the part you have to live with.
On the plus side, it gives you the freedom to do what you really want to do and to be able to work. Then, something that I enjoy a lot, it feels full of what I do on a daily basis, the challenges that I have to face and overcome.

We talked about technology, artificial intelligence ... Do you think technology and digital are the future for a business to succeed?
Yes. New technologies give us opportunities we never imagined before, and they have come to stay, but I still say that the human factor is key. We always want to emphasize that we are a complement to the physiotherapist; we don’t want to replace that in any way, mainly because we can’t. Another example is teleworking, which has many advantages, but I believe that there is no such thing as working personally and hand-in-hand with colleagues, and the pre-existing human factor can never be lost.

How would you encourage users to use Trak?
Trak is a tool for faster and better user recovery. If you have an injury and want to recover sooner, what better way than to do it on your own, knowing what you need to do to recover as soon as possible, without having to tell others or waiting for your next week's physiotherapist consultation. We provide these patients with the opportunity to use Trak and rehabilitate it as soon as possible.

www.trak.es