Zimmer Biomet Announces New Data Supporting Clinical Benefits of mymobility ® with Apple Watch® at AAOS 2021

Zimmer Biomet Holdings, Inc. (NYSE and SIX: ZBH), a global medical technology leader, today announced four data presentations on the clinical value of mymobility ^® with Apple Watch^®, a first-of-a-kind remote care management platform designed to help healthcare professionals remotely support and guide patients as they prepare for and recover from orthopedic procedures. mymobility with Apple Watch is a part of ZBEdge™, Zimmer Biomet’s suite of connected digital and robotic technologies designed to deliver actionable insights with the goal of improving patient outcomes. The data are being presented at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) 2021 Annual Meeting being held on August 31 to September 3 in San Diego.

“The introduction of mymobility with Apple Watch underscores Zimmer Biomet’s commitment to evaluating the real-world clinical benefits of a remote care management platform after orthopedic surgery,” said Robert Kraal, Vice President and General Manager, Connected Health at Zimmer Biomet. “These four analyses, utilizing interim data from the ongoing mymobility Clinical Study, suggest that mymobility with Apple Watch may be a viable option to help healthcare professionals monitor how a patient is progressing after surgery and remotely manage rehabilitation regimens to optimize recovery.”

Details on the four data presentations can be found below.

PODIUM SESSION: Paper 458 – A Smartwatch Paired Mobile Application Provides Postoperative Self-Directed Rehabilitation Without Compromising Patient Outcomes: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Session: Adult Reconstruction Knee IV
September 2, 2021
8:50AM – 8:55AM PT
Ballroom 6A

• Evaluated 337 patients who underwent primary total knee arthroplasty (TKA) to determine the impact on postoperative outcomes with the use of a self-directed rehabilitation (SDR) program after TKA. The SDR was administered via the mymobility application which provided pre- and post-operative education and video-directed exercise programs and was paired with an Apple Watch to help track the patient’s physical activity^*.
• Patients were divided into three groups: a control group who had formal physical therapy (184 patients), a high exercise-compliance SDR treatment group (90 patients) and a low exercise-compliance SDR group (63 patients).
• Patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) of knee injury and osteoarthritis outcome scores, joint replacement (KOOS, JR) along with knee range of motion and manipulation rates were evaluated.
• Results showed no clinically significant differences between groups for all evaluated outcomes at 3, 6 or 12 months.
• Study Outcome: Researchers concluded that a postoperative SDR program administered through a mobile application paired with a smartwatch can provide similar patient-reported outcome measures while not affecting manipulation rates or compromising range of motion, regardless of the level of compliance with the application exercise program.

“Our study was able to demonstrate that total knee replacement surgery patients using a remote care model with mymobility and an Apple Watch were able to achieve clinically similar outcomes compared to patients who received the traditional standard of care, regardless of their level of exercise compliance,” said Krishna Tripuraneni, MD, FAAOS, orthopedic surgeon at New Mexico Orthopaedics and the study’s lead author. “The data suggest that a smartphone-based care platform featuring mymobility could be a viable alternative to the standard of care for post-operative knee replacement care.”

POSTER SESSION: P0765 – Use of a Smartphone-Based Care Platform after Primary Joint Arthroplasty: A Prospective Randomized Trial

September 2, 2021, 7:00AM – 5:00PM PT (Academy Hall – Sails Pavilion)

• Evaluated 828 patients who underwent primary hip or knee arthroplasty to determine the difference in 90-day healthcare utilization between a smartphone-based versus traditional care platform.
• Patients were randomized into two groups: a control group (447 patients) who received the institution’s traditional standard of care, and a treatment group (381 patients) who received the mymobility application with an Apple Watch. Outcomes assessed were physical therapy (PT) visits, readmissions and emergency department (ED)/urgent care (UC) visits.
• Study Outcome: Findings of this randomized trial demonstrate non-inferiority of the primary endpoint comparing the mymobility platform group to the control group on 90-day readmissions.

“This study demonstrated that compared to patients treated with the standard of care after surgery, mymobility patients utilized less of the studied healthcare resources which, we hypothesize, could aid in decreasing postoperative costs,” said David Crawford, MD, orthopedic surgeon at JIS Orthopedics and the study’s lead author.

POSTER SESSION: P0542 – The Recovery Curve for Physical Activity following Primary Total Hip Arthroplasty Using Average Daily Step Counts Measured with a Smartphone Based Case Platform and Smart Watch

September 2, 2021, 7:00AM – 5:00PM PT (Academy Hall – Sails Pavilion)

• Designed to characterize the recovery curve based on passively collected physical activity after total hip arthroplasty (THA) using average step counts and flight counts (flights of stairs) measured by mymobility with Apple Watch.
• Study Outcome: Analyses of the interim data of 778 patients found that using these passively collected outcome measures (PCOM) to assess the rate of recovery (the pace at which patients return to preoperative activity levels) was similar to previously reported recovery curves for patient reported outcomes measures (PROM) ¹.

“Before the availability of wearables and remote care management applications that can passively collect movement data and other indicators of post-surgical recovery, surgeons relied on patient reported outcome measures to assess a patient’s progress,” said Dr. Crawford, the study’s lead author. “Our analysis suggests that passively collected physical activity data using mymobility with Apple Watch may be as useful as PROMs to set goals and monitor recovery after total hip replacement surgery.”

POSTER SESSION: P0528 – The Relationship of Common Patient Reported Outcomes and Passively Collected Outcome Measures in the Adult Reconstruction Arena

September 2, 2021, 7:00AM – 5:00PM PT (Academy Hall – Sails Pavilion)

• Analyzed data from 778 patients who underwent primary total hip, or total and unicondylar knee arthroplasty and had at least one PROM and one PCOM.
• Study Outcome: When the relationship between overall PROM scores and PCOMs was evaluated, there did not appear to be a correlation; however, there were associations between PCOMs and PROMs about pain, walking, standing and activity levels.

“The associations we observed between passively collected data on step and stair counts and patient reported data on metrics such as pain and walking support the value of incorporating smart remote monitoring technology into the traditional rehabilitation pathways for hip or knee surgery,” added Dr. Crawford, the study’s leading author.

Full abstracts of the planned presentations are available at https://www.aaos.org/annual/education/browse-education/.

mymobility with Apple Watch and iPhone acts as a virtual care team member by providing patients with support and guidance at the direction of their healthcare professional as they prepare for and recover from orthopedic procedures from the comfort of their home. For patients who have a compatible smartphone, and who are clinically suited for remote care, mymobility leverages the powerful sensors on Apple Watch and iPhone to measure a patient’s activity (e.g., number of steps, walking asymmetry, walking speed, flights of stairs) and post-operative progress. mymobility with Apple Watch also enables virtual connections between patients and healthcare professionals throughout the surgical episode of care, with the goal of lowering the overall cost of care. Pre- and post-operative data collected by mymobility with Apple Watch is combined with intraoperative data from patients who undergo joint replacement with ROSA^® Robotics and is then seamlessly consolidated and analyzed by OrthoIntel Orthopedic Intelligence Platform, to uncover new clinical insights throughout the episode of care and to help surgeons and care teams make informed patient care decisions. To learn more about mymobility with Apple Watch, please visit zimmerbiomet.com/mymobility.