Ndiho Media

By Paul Ndiho

A Nigerian-born, California-based electrical engineer has developed a mobile application called “Movn”, that’s designed to implement virtual cardiac rehab programs for patients with heart disease. 

The World Health Organization says that cardiovascular disease, which includes heart disease and stroke, is the world’s number one cause of death. 17.5 million People die each year from heart-related disease. But could a mobile cardiac rehab program app be the answer?  Ade Adesanya, co- founder of the Los Angeles-based Moving Analytics has built a cutting-edge app called “Movn” that could be the future for hospitals to implement virtual cardiac rehab programs for patients with heart disease.

“What we do at moving analytics is we work with hospitals to design and implement virtual cardiac rehab programs for patients with heart disease. The goal is to help a patient after a heart attack or heart surgery to do their cardiac rehab at home through a tablet or a smartphone application.”

This mobile technology has the potential to overcome barriers to access to cardiac rehabilitation and may be a useful tool for increasing participation.

“The problem we’re solving is that less than 20 percent of patients in the U.S. after heart surgery or a heart attack do cardiac rehab, even though all the research shows that if they do it, they can live five years longer, they have half the risk of getting a second heart attack, improves the quality of life.

Adesanya says he was inspired by his father, a prominent Lagos businessman.

“I have always been fascinated with entrepreneurship, and that came from my experience growing up.”

The company’s biggest breakthrough came when they first met executives from the American Heart Association. What started as pitch to build a fitness tracker — resulted in an opportunity for Moving Analytics to venture into cardiac rehab.

“I remember picking up the phone and calling close to a hundred cardiac rehab programs across the country. I would say hey I am a grad student working with the American Heart Association — you know we’re trying to build an app for cardiac rehab, but I don’t know what is, so can you tell me what you do in a cardiac rehab program. What are the challenges are and what can you see as the source of innovation.”

Movn is an evidence-based rehab program developed at Stanford University.  Mr. Adesanya, says through the mobile app, patients can receive and interact with information, record and review data, receive automated feedback, and connect with other users or healthcare providers.

“They built the program and did numerous clinical trials, and that program is called multi-fit, they’re able to show that patients who did that program had the same critical outcomes.”

Shuo Qiao, chief technology officer, Moving Analytics says, technology is lowering the barrier of people making products, but security to protect patient information has to be a priority.

“We take security seriously because as a healthcare company, safety is the number one thing when you build a product. So we take all the safety measures to make sure that we can serve our patients in hospitals.”

Since its inception, the company has signed up 13 hospitals as paying customers.  As the firm grows and expands into more hospitals, its leaders have their sights set on other rehab applications — and a remote disease management platform to include