Bone fractures are more common among the elderly, and the healing process can be more complex and critical in this population. The inability to promptly mobilize geriatric patients after a fracture can lead to further deterioration of their overall health, especially if they have pre-existing co-morbidities. This can have dire consequences, with patients at risk of losing their autonomy and requiring relocation to nursing homes or facing significantly longer hospital stays.

In managing fractures, each injury calls for personalized strategies to determine safe movements and facilitate healing. To avoid complications like implant failure, re-fracturing, or delayed healing, it is crucial to recognize the complexities of each case. The challenge lies in finding a delicate balance between promoting mobility and avoiding excessive strain that could jeopardize the surgical implant or increase the risk of falls.

The MoveFx team recognizes the significance of movement in life, and their goal is to enable the geriatric aftercare teams and caregivers to mobilize patients to their pre-operative activity level as safely and early as possible. Based on the patient’s prior activity level, the X-ray images, and patient anatomy, and combined with detailed knowledge of activity-dependent loading, MoveFx helps after-care physicians to adapt and schedule post-operative activity to help the individual regain their activity level by analyzing each patient’s fracture and predicting the range of tolerable forces throughout the healing process.

MoveFx’s goal is to bring the benefits of individualized, quantitative analysis of the interaction between physical and mechanical factors directly into the care path. Thus MoveFx aims to provide a more personalized and effective approach to support patients, healthcare professionals, and caregivers throughout the healing process.

MoveFx relies on an interdisciplinary team of engineers, software developers from BIH, and the Julius Wolff Institute, Charité embedded in a broad network of international clinical and research partners spanning world-leading networks in fracture treatment and globally leading industry partners in the fracture fixation field.

MoveFx's mission is to accompany and support the fracture healing process by systematically and quantitatively integrating the assessment of the mechanical environment into the fracture treatment care path. Our team at MoveFx enables mentoring patients, surgeons, geriatric physicians, physiotherapists and caregivers to support optimized fracture healing. We integrate patient activity, fracture fixation and postoperative recovery to adjust the biomechanical conditions of fracture treatment and care. This approach enables a controlled and reproducible mechano-therapy of healing bones. We quantify the interaction of the physical and mechanical conditions to ensure regeneration in challenging healing settings such as in elderly patients – but our technology is open to all fracture fixation procedures.

Mobilize: Individualized fracture- and patient-calibrated activity plan

Motivate: Reminder for specific activities, feedback and illustration of healing progress

Monitor: Assessment of functional performance through standard tests (assessments)

Minimize Risks: Estimation of strength and guidance on fall training, pointing out overloading activities

Message: Enabling direct, early communication with treating doctors and the care team