Cork University Hospital (CUH) is the largest university teaching hospital in Ireland and the CUH is a regional centre for plastic surgery in Munster. Physiotherapists deliver specific tailored rehabilitation programmes following tendon, nerve and skin graft operations.

This includes exercise therapy, soft tissue work, manual therapy in addition to functional rehabilitation. Health Innovation Hub Ireland (HIHI) is supporting Zendra Health to conduct pilots with patients and staff of the hand therapy teams in Cork University Hospital and University Hospital Galway.

Many healthcare staff have identified the need for mobile health apps, however they do not have expertise or resources to develop a safe, secure and easy-to-use app. For example, the CUH hand therapy teams need an app to support patients recovering from surgery. As hand injuries can affect a person’s ability to work and carry out daily activities, it is important that rehab exercises are carried out regularly and correctly to achieve the best results.

Zendra Health’s Virtual Wards enables healthcare services to easily create personalised self-management solutions aligning with specific care pathways to provide the right care, at the right time, in the right place.

Using Zendra Health’s Virtual Wards, the CUH Plastics team, HIHI and Zendra Health co-created the CUH Hand Therapy App which prompts patients when to do their rehab exercises, how to carry them out correctly and records progress.

The CUH Hand Therapy App 12 month pilot completed in November 2022 so the results are still being analysed. Early indications are that patient and clinician feedback has been so promising that the solution is now being rolled out into University Galway Hospital, Ireland.