Since 2003, Airrosti has offered pain relief, rapid recovery, and physical therapy services for muscle and joint issues at in person clinics in the US. Their mission is to help people in acute or chronic pain to reduce pain, improve mobility or better stability so they can reach their personal wellness goals. In order to better serve their employer and carrier partners outside their current clinic locations, they launched a telehealth mobile app for remote patients in early 2020. 

Airrosti realized that a custom PWA would provide better patient care and more opportunities to improve integration with other partners. Airrosti had plans to launch with mostly feature parity in December 2020, but reached out to thoughtbot for some guidance on the design. With the PWA development underway, and the third-party app still in use, thoughtbot led a research and interview phase to inform the updated design. The teams came away with some valuable insights from the market, recommendations on UX for the PWA, and a prioritized list of next steps for their team.

After the initial PWA launch, Airrosti realized the clinical success of remote treatment meant more opportunity and formed a dedicated Airrosti Remote Recovery (ARR) team who is focused on consistently improving their provider-driven musculoskeletal (MSK) therapy solution. 

The team knew they needed to create a dynamic mobile product that met their clinical quality metrics and was simple and intuitive to use. Director of Product Technology Development, Chantil Tan, reached out to thoughtbot again for help with a new MVP mobile app launch. She recognized that thoughtbot's skills and approach would best align with Airrosti’s mission driven culture. That choice was validated when a connection, who was a previous thoughtbot client, also recommended our team. 

thoughtbot kicked things off with a mini Product Design Sprint (PDS) to prototype some solutions and do technical research around EMR technology integrations. This time we came away with a clear roadmap for building and launching a React Native app together.

 Together the team took disjointed processes (scheduling, medical forms, physical therapy, provider messaging, notifications) on multiple platforms and combined them into a single application to remove the burden on the patient. To achieve this, thoughtbot teammates worked through the processes themselves to understand which parts were frustrating for the user and solve accordingly. We also worked closely with Chantil and the ARR product team and members of their clinical team, call center, benefits, IT, and EMR teams. 

 The result is a strong first version app that makes the user experience both simple and fun. Airrosti’s plans are to continue enhancing the app with upgrades designed to continually build patient engagement and enable patients and providers to stay in touch seamlessly through the episode of care. 

While focused on seamlessly delivering the right features for patients—scheduling, doing exercises, and messaging their provider—the ARR team together with thoughtbot launched the first version product in early December 2021. The teams are all extremely pleased with the patient experience and how easy it’s been to transition to the new app. They are excited to see user adoption build, especially as new employer and insurance partners launch in early 2022. 

Now that the first version has launched, Airrosti is continuing their partnership with thoughtbot to optimize the remote patient experience with features like exercise autoplay, tracking, and suggestions. They will also be working to build the full suite of analytics around use and adherence to treatment plans that the company has pioneered in its in clinic business.