May 10, 2023 – EXI – the Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) that delivers personalized physical activity prescription and behavior change support for people with long-term health conditions – has unveiled its first Exercise is Medicine® (EIM) deployment alliances.
Freedom Aquatic & Fitness Center (FAFC) – located onsite at George Mason University Science & Technology campus in Manassus, Virginia, with a specialist team that delivers EIM in the community and via health provider referrals – and Logan Health, a Montana healthcare system offering EIM programs through its medical fitness center in Kalispell, Montana, will be the first facilities to deploy Exercise is Medicine® using EXI’s digital platform.
Both initiatives will go live in May, identifying patients across multiple hospital departments and health conditions to be onboarded into EXI, and will officially launch at exclusive EIM powered by EXI stakeholder events on 23 and 25 May respectively.
The announcements follow EXI’s appointment as strategic partner to the ACSM’s (American College of Sports Medicine) Exercise is Medicine® program in January – the first tech platform to incorporate Exercise is Medicine® protocols.
Exercise is Medicine® is rooted in the belief that physical activity is integral to the prevention and treatment of many medical conditions. It aims to make physical activity assessment and promotion a standard in clinical care, connecting healthcare with evidence-based physical activity resources, programs and qualified exercise professionals and encouraging physicians and other healthcare providers to include physical activity in treatment plans for people everywhere and of all abilities.
EXI’s new role as EIM strategic partner, and its implementation at FAFC and Logan Health, recognizes the value this digital therapeutic brings to exercise referral.
A Class 1 medical device, EXI draws on the latest clinical evidence for behavioral science and exercise – including ACSM/EIM physical activity guidelines – to prescribe personalized, intensity-based physical activity that’s safe and achievable for people with up to 23 long-term health conditions and co-morbidities. It then engages, guides and motivates each patient through a progressive prescription, offering a choice of suitable activities, tracking progress and providing behavior change support – including rewards for achieving personal goals – to engage patients in their prescription, drive adherence and encourage sustained physical activity.
The addition of a wearable allows for further data-evidenced rewards, as well as empowering patients to confidently complete prescriptions in the safe heart rate zone, anytime, anywhere.
Use of a wearable also provides a greater breadth of accurate data points, all of which is shared with the healthcare professional via EXI’s secure practitioner portal to enable remote, real-time, easy monitoring of adherence and health improvements. In turn, support can be optimized for patients at home as well as on-site.
EXI CEO Grace McNamara said: “Exercise is Medicine® is evolving to become more proactive. New technology now empowers healthcare professionals to quickly and easily refer and monitor patients, with data seamlessly tracked and shared, and patients to confidently engage and participate on a sustained basis.
“We’re delighted to partner with Freedom Aquatic & Fitness Center and Logan Health as they pioneer a new way of working, implementing EXI to streamline the delivery of Exercise is Medicine® – efficiently, effectively, safely and at scale – to achieve improved health outcomes for a far greater number of people.”
Dr Brad Roy, Executive Director at Logan Health, said: “We are excited to partner with EXI to expand our Logan Health employee wellness outreach to the Logan Health system, and to utilize digital technology to enhance the clinically based health and wellness coaching and programming offered through our medical fitness center.”
Tammy Rowland, EIM Program Manager at Freedom Aquatic & Fitness Center, said: “We pride ourselves on creating individualized action plans that meet each client where they are, and by harnessing digital exercise prescription and real-time monitoring, we will extend this to a larger proportion of the population.
“We expect our partnership with EXI to drive increased adherence, sustainability and even greater outcomes for our clients, perfectly complementing our accessible, in-person, one-to-one EIM personal training sessions and health and wellness coaching.”
###
About EXI
EXI is Exercise Intelligence – a Software as a Medical Device (SaMD), part of the emerging field of digital therapeutics, that supports professionals to prescribe and refer patients to exercise appropriately, and people with long-term health conditions to safely increase their physical activity. It’s designed for up to 23 co-morbid physical and mental health conditions, including prevalent and serious non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, stroke, asthma, COPD, depression, anxiety and stress. Fully regulated and bringing together behavior change science with the latest clinical evidence and physical activity guidelines, it delivers safe, scalable, measurable health interventions that are medically proven, achievable for the end user, and quick and simple to prescribe and monitor. It also harnesses behavior change support and rewards to engage patients in their prescription, drive adherence and support sustained physical activity. A smartphone app supports end users while a secure data portal allows the professional to monitor outcomes and adherence.
www.exi.life
About ACSM’s Exercise is Medicine® (EIM)
EIM is a global health initiative co-founded in 2007 by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and the American Medical Association. It is now managed by ACSM.
EIM encourages physicians and other healthcare providers to include physical activity when designing treatment plans and to refer patients to evidence-based exercise programs, exercise professionals, convenient exercise facilities/places, or self-directed resources (smartphone apps, digital activity trackers). EIM is committed to the belief that physical activity promotes optimal health and is integral in the prevention and treatment of many medical conditions. In addition to touching 50,000 ACSM members and certified professionals, EIM reaches outside of the organization to achieve its vision, involving a variety of stakeholders to achieve systemic integration of physical activity within health care.
