Access to rehabilitation shouldn’t depend on where patients live
Recovering from an injury or managing a chronic condition often requires weeks or even months of rehabilitation.
In many public healthcare systems, however, clinical capacity and geographic coverage are limited.
Treatment dropout and social, geographical and age-related gaps continue to limit access to care for many patients.
SONDA, a Chilean technology company, set out to expand access to rehabilitation services in Chile’s public healthcare system.
Its challenge was to find a scalable digital solution that could extend rehabilitation beyond the hospital.
That solution had to fit naturally into existing clinical workflows and overcome the technological and sociocultural barriers that arise when new digital tools are introduced into public healthcare.
SONDA had never implemented a remote rehabilitation solution before.
The main risk was adoption: without real engagement from clinical teams and patients, the technology would not deliver the expected impact on access, productivity and quality of care.
And without a validated model, there would be no clinical and operational evidence to support adoption in the Chilean public system.
Remote rehabilitation under professional supervision
To address this challenge, SONDA partnered with INNOVAHEALTH, the Spanish company behind RehBody, a digital platform for remote rehabilitation.
RehBody lets patients perform rehabilitation exercises on their own while remaining under professional supervision.
Clinicians use the platform to prescribe home physiotherapy programmes and to monitor patient sessions and performance.
The solution is designed to streamline public rehabilitation services by:
- reducing waiting lists,
- cutting unnecessary patient travel,
- reducing the number of in-person sessions required.
By optimising clinical workflows, RehBody allows specialists to supervise more patients and make the service more effective overall.
Two acceleration services to validate clinical impact
Through the EU-LAC Digital Accelerator, the collaboration benefited from two complementary acceleration services.
- Service n°1: PoC design & Prototyping
This service provided the framework for the proof of concept.
It defined the pilot’s scope, objectives, key performance indicators, milestones, timeline and risks.
It also coordinated SONDA, INNOVAHEALTH and the service providers, and monitored progress through follow-up sessions.
- Service n°2: Open innovation bootcamp
This workshop applied corporate-startup innovation methods to the partnership’s proof of concept.
It helped both organisations build a stronger collaboration roadmap and identify practical next steps for adoption.
Clinical evidence for wider adoption
The proof of concept took place within the Chilean public health framework, in coordination with Hospital Digital and the public hospitals of Curicó and Melipilla.
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🏥 SONDA |
💙 INNOVAHEALTH |
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Together, SONDA and INNOVAHEALTH have shown that digital health technology can make rehabilitation more accessible without giving up clinical supervision.
The partnership now has the evidence it needs to take remote rehabilitation further across Chile and Latin America.
