Transforming Preventative Healthcare with Tailored Training Programs to Combat Chronic Conditions and Injuries Worldwide
Ginkgo Health Inc., a pioneering technology startup aiming to reduce the global healthcare burden, is set to launch Ginkgo Active—an innovative AI-powered application that delivers personalized exercise prescriptions for the prevention and management of chronic conditions and injuries. With the potential to impact billions worldwide, Ginkgo Active will be available to the public on December 8, 2024.
Billions Remain Untreated Until Illness Strikes
In the past 25 years, more than 100,000 research studies have shown that exercise is the best medicine in the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) concluded in the 2019 Guidelines on Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior that:
Regular physical activity is a known protective factor for the prevention and management of noncommunicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease, type-2 diabetes, breast and colon cancer.
Despite this, there is no solution that consolidates existing health research to help the general population. An exercise prescription should consider hundreds of health rules including exercise type, intensity, fitness level, and risk. The computation is beyond human capacity.
Maggie Deng, the founder of Ginkgo Health, was inspired to create Ginkgo Active as a board member of NextStep Robotics - a tech company committed to developing rehabilitation equipment for stroke patients. During her work in NextStep, neurologists and physiotherapists repeatedly pointed out that prevention can be achieved by task oriented exercise plans, but it must be started before patients have serious physical impairments.
The First AI Software to Prescribe Exercise
Instead of reading books, following social media influencers, or finding a personal trainer, Ginkgo Active users receive personalized exercise prescriptions generated by Ginkgo's expert AI system. Each prescription will be generated by screening more than 170,000 health data points. The prescriptions cover all muscle groups with multicomponent training for movement literacy while minimizing exercise risks.
"Just as I ensure as a PT that a patient's path to recovery is unique, their exercise plan should be tailored to their individual needs and goals. A personalized approach is key to maximizing outcomes," says Amanda Leonard, Program Director for the Neurologic Physical Therapy Residency Program at the University of Maryland Medical System.
Ginkgo Active has the ability to make micro-adjustments to training sessions from real time feedback. It automatically modifies training sessions on a daily basis to accommodate different needs such as limited exercise equipment during a trip, energy levels for the day, and the current exercise that the user is doing. Every four weeks, each user receives a re-assessment of their health and gets an updated exercise prescription.
"Partnering with Ginkgo to build a launch-ready version of Ginkgo Active was an incredible experience," says Jose Hernandez, CEO of TTT Studios. "Their mission to make preventive health accessible to everyone really resonated with us, and we were thrilled to help bring this vision to life so people could start benefiting from it right away."
Since October 2023, Ginkgo Active has been conducting extensive user testing, refining the application to improve its performance. The underlying algorithm has been rigorously validated through simulations using over one million generated user profiles based on statistical data on prevalent chronic diseases across North America. So far, seven business groups have enrolled in group benefit plans, offering Ginkgo Active to their employees and family members.
"I need a solution to keep my staff from getting injured," says Anna Chin, founder of a chain of early childhood education centers. "I learned a term from Ginkgo called 'movement literacy', which is the body's ability to execute basic motor skills. It is one of the primary goals in Ginkgo's targeted training. I hope we can see less injuries when my staff pick up children or rearrange the classroom. I will talk to my insurance company for a better rate if the claims are getting lower."
A Product with No Compromise
"We could not find any technology that can guide billions of people to do billions of different training programs at the same time." says Deng, "so we totally understand why some products use solutions like pre-recorded videos and wearable devices to help users to get active."
"We were inspired by gaming technology. Millions of people can play at the same time, have their own avatars, and own their unique experiences within the game. Why can't we also build a digital twin to guide every user in the world through day-to-day training?"
Since inception, Ginkgo has been working with partners in the game and movie industries to adopt technologies that have never been utilized in health applications. To facilitate easy onboarding for users of all age groups, the app provides a fully gamified storyline to mirror a real-life experience and to facilitate motivation and habit-building.
"We were advised many times to build something simple to start with, but we couldn't settle for something with a simple function and pretend that it can solve a complex problem," explains Deng.
"We all desire smarter and easy-to-use solutions for complex health conditions. That's where the value of NextStep and Ginkgo lies." says Brad Hennessie, CEO of Nextstep Robotics, whose clinical partners, rehab specialists, and medical doctors from Maryland University and Johns Hopkins have always been strong supporters of this preventative solution.
"The global estimate of the cost of physical inactivity to public health care systems between 2020 and 2030 is about US$ 300 billion if levels of physical inactivity are not reduced." - WHO