Opportunity:

Recovering from an injury is a lengthy process throughout which physical therapy plays a crucial role. The effectiveness and speed of recovery depends not only on the quality of the physical therapy provider but also on how diligently and precisely a patient follows his/her prescribed home exercises. Research shows that lack of compliance with home exercises is a major limitation to the effectiveness of physical therapy, and can slow down an injury recovery process. [1] For example, in a study by Bassett up to 65% of physiotherapy patients were non-adherent or only partially adherent to home exercise regimens as prescribed by their doctors. [2]  Additionally, ensuring the accuracy and effectiveness of home exercising is challenging even for patients with the best intentions without the advice and oversight of a physical therapy expert.

Furthermore, it can be challenging for patients to make the most out of in person physical therapy visits. Therapists often oversee multiple patients simultaneously in one room, relying on support from less qualified staff if at all. In the typical model, a physical therapist spends the first 30 minutes of a therapy session with the patient assessing their current needs. Then, the therapist uses this assessment to develop an exercise plan that the patient completes during the second half of the therapy session. During the latter half of the session, the patient is monitored and assisted by additional staff with less training and qualifications. The result is that a patient typically only spends half of a therapy session that s/he is paying for receiving the attention of a qualified specialist. Without enough proper guidance and corrections early on, patients often learn to perform exercises incorrectly, reducing the effectiveness of physical therapy sessions and slowing down the recovery process.

Solution:

APTitude is a software application that combines medical and anatomical science, physical therapy practices, computer vision algorithms and machine learning to help physical therapists track the improvement progress of their patients and suggest improvements or changes to their regiments in real time through regular observations. The technology uses computer vision and machine learning technology to analyze physical movement, identifying nuances in movement patterns by comparing against a database of observations. APTitude provides alerts, tracking and predicts the best individualized physical therapy regimens to help patients recover in the quickest way possible.

Doctors or physical therapists input patient data, the details of the injury, plus the initial exercises into APTitude’s computer system.  The patient then performs the exercises in front of a camera (either webcam or smartphone) that monitors his or her movements over a period of time while the program tracks progress,  suggesting corrections for proper form, new exercises, or higher levels of intensity based on the level of improvement. Patients will be able to use the program at home outside of regular physical therapy sessions via smartphone app to help them monitor the quality of their home exercises achieving faster progress, which will result in a better overall patient experience with a specific PT location. This will also allow doctors and physical therapists to monitor whether or not the patient has performed the necessary at-home exercises and adjust the regiment based on the patient’s true progress.

APTitude uses machine learning algorithms that continuously attribute certain movements to positive or negative improvement based on the patient’s injury and physical characteristics and evolve with the addition of more users and observations.  As APTitude makes more and more observations from different users, its accuracy will further improve. These observations will also be applied to the software’s future ability to prescribe movements for an individual that is showing signs of physical weakness in a movement.

Proof of Concept:

Studies have shown that application of motion capture data to medical practices is feasible. According to an article in the Journal of Physiotherapy & Physical Rehabilitation, neural network architecture produced a model for sets of human motions represented with a mixture of Gaussian density functions. The mean log-likelihood of observed sequences was employed as a performance metric in evaluating the consistency of a subject’s performance relative to the reference dataset of motions. A publically available dataset of human motions captured with Microsoft Kinect was used for validation of the proposed method. The article presents a novel approach for modeling and evaluation of human motions with a potential application in home-based physical therapy and rehabilitation. [8]

Business Model:

Target Customer

Initially, APTitude would primarily target physical therapists, as they would realize the most value through patient compliance and operating cost reduction. As more data is collected and proof points obtained, APTitude would then target insurance companies to a) reach more physical therapists b) have insurance companies take on a portion of the costs so physical therapists and patients receive a subsidy.  Insurance providers will be incentivized because of the long-term effect this will have on surgery reductions.

Revenue Stream/Structure

• The software will initially be offered on a free trial basis to PT offices in order to obtain data from those observations.
• Once the 3 month trial period is over we will charge a $100 license fee per PT location and a $7 fee per patient profile on the platform.
  • We explored the idea of charging a fee based on total data usage per office, but the fluctuations in payment sizes would disincentivize PT offices from signing up
• There will be a premium version of the software platform that offers new exercises to perform once a patient has reached competency in their initially prescribed exercise regimen to aid faster recovery. How much a patient can progress further outside of the prescribed weekly regimen will be monitored and limited to avoid any potential negative effects.
  • If a patient suffers an injury in the future or wants to check their movements, the software can be accessed on their phone with limited capabilities. The program will only tell them if they are injured or needs to consult their PT and where their injury is likely stemming from. This allows the PT to receive more patients through a referral like system and increase their revenue as well as ours.

Effectiveness, Commercial Promise, and Competition:

Initial market research suggests that there is significant opportunity for this product to be commercially successful. The physical therapy market is highly fragmented, lacking clear front-runners; no single market participant controls more than 5%. [5] Currently, it attracts $35 billion in revenues, with 3.9% annual growth. [4] According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the job outlook for physical therapists in the next 10 years is 28%, or “much faster than average.” [16] At the same time, patient retention is a significant challenge for physical therapists, and this product has high potential to improve retention rates. By improving patient compliance, we anticipate a decrease in attrition rates, which can be as high as 40% by the seventh outpatient visit.

We believe that macro level trends will provide a tailwind for our business as we have an aging population in the US that are heavy consumers of physical therapy as well as a rising demand for an active lifestyle. These demographic trends along with increased insurance coverage should boost demand for PT. Additionally, people are employed in more sedentary jobs on average, which is leading to physical injuries when going from sitting all day to activity. Average outpatient course of treatment consists of approximately 10 visits, and insurance reimbursement rates and the number of visits approved for PT services are largely stagnant or decreasing. [4]

Job Outlook for Physical Therapy:

Competitors:

Competition for APTitude will vary depending on target market, predictiveness as well as use of hardware and robotics.  Organizations such as Bionik Laboratories and Hocoma integrate heavy robotics to evaluate and support physical therapy and rehab of patients with severely impaired patients.  Few companies are using AI to develop predictive (along with evaluative) capabilities to support either PT or Sports / Exercise needs, with the exception of PhysiMax that is geared toward professional athletes.

Pilot Program / What funds will be used for:

We are requesting $175K in funding over two years to hire technical experts and create a cloud platform to store our data. Marketing and sales staff will be managed by the founders at no cost.

• Technical experts needed: $100 per hour
• Hardware needed: ~$9,000 a month
• Physical Therapy consultant needed: $50 per hour
• Marketing and sales staff: $0 (Founders)

Pilot:

Step 1 – Our initial pilot will focus on collecting data and monitoring the experiences of 100 physical therapy patients with select physical conditions over the course of their 10-14 week rehabilitation treatments. To do this, we will partner with 2-3 physical therapist practices in Chicago. We will track their progress by assessing their performance of 5-7 movements at the beginning of their course of treatment, at weekly intervals, and at the end of treatment.

Step 2 – The video data collected from the 2-3 physical therapist offices will create a baseline distribution of movement norms. This allows our software to understand how patients should move and what effective movements are.

Step 3 – Once the software is smart enough to understand what correct movements are, it will observe patients’ movements, immediately identify physical deficiencies from this movement, and prescribe individualized movements to help the patient recover.

Future:

Our goal is to saturate the Chicago PT market by partnering with Athletico. Athletico has 57 PT locations in Chicago alone. From there we will try to expand into adjacent markets, starting with Miami, which is home to many elderly individuals at risk of injury.

Financial projections:

Sources:

[1] Journal of Orthopedic and Sports Physical Therapy https://www.jospt.org/doi/pdf/10.2519/jospt.1997.25.2.101

[2] The assessment of patient adherence to phsiotherapy rehabilitation https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sandra_Bassett/publication/284411604_The_assessment_of_patient_adherence_to_physiotherapy_rehabilitation/links/56afc4cb08ae9c1968b48840/The-assessment-of-patient-adherence-to-physiotherapy-rehabilitation.pdf

What don’t patients do their exercises? Understanding non-compliance with physiotherapy in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee http://jech.bmj.com/content/55/2/132

[3] https://www.ibisworld.com/industry-trends/market-research-reports/healthcare-social-assistance/ambulatory-health-care-services/physical-therapists.html

[4] https://seekingalpha.com/article/3975610-opportunity-within-multi-billion-physical-therapy-industry-examining-u-s-physical-therapy

[5] http://www.dartfish.com/

[6] https://venturebeat.com/2017/10/15/bots-are-becoming-highly-skilled-assistants-in-physical-therapy/

[7] https://www.bioniklabs.com/about/overview

[8] https://www.omicsonline.org/open-access/mathematical-modeling-and-evaluation-of-human-motions-in-physicaltherapy-using-mixture-density-neural-networks.php?aid=84401

[9] https://arxiv.org/abs/1802.01489

[10] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2235834/

[11] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29283933

[12] https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1609/1609.07480.pdf

[13] https://phyzio.com

[14] https://pmax.co

[15] https://focusmotion.io

[16] https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/physical-therapists.htm

[17] https://www.vmware.com/cloud-services/pricing-guide.html

Team Members:

Pavlina Plasilova, Kelly de Klerk, Yuxiao Zhang, Aziz Munir, Megan McDonald

Problem

Consumers often do not know how to create the PERFECT outfit for an important event or they don’t know how to combine the articles of clothing they currently own into a good outfit.

Consumers may forget clothing items they already have hiding in their closet, so these items stay on the hanger underused.  Or, an individual may have 80% of an outfit that would fit their preferences, but they don’t know what to add to complete the ensemble or simply, they’re unsure what’s appropriate for a specific social event coming up on their calendar.

Solution

What’s in Your Closet, WIYC, would help these consumers better understand how to maximize the items already in their closet or find pieces to complete a look via relevant offline or online channels.

To use What’s in Your Closet, the customer will first need to add photos of their current closet inventory. This can either be an upload of the customer’s personal photos and/or transfer of items found from online transactions (e.g. receipt from Nordstrom, complete with item photos) to the customer’s account. Once their closet is ‘complete’ in their account, they can add color with style preferences so the algorithm can make the best recommendations in the future.

Then, the customer can come to their WIYC account when they are struggling to find an outfit.  They can input detail on a particular event or occasion (wedding, cocktail event, formal), and then the algorithm will take into consideration what you wore on recent occasions, seasonal and weather details, your budget, and your ideal fashion style.

What’s in Your Closet will then offer three suggestions based on your time constraints and preferences.

1. 1-2 outfit recommendations based on what’s currently in your closet.
2. 1-2 outfit recommendations based on what’s available locally in stores, or online, and which you can purchase in time for the event (coupled with items like shoes and accessories that are currently in your closet).
3. 1-2 outfit recommendations based on items in your friends’ closests, if you elect to participate in social networking through the app and “share” your closet with others (coupled with items like shoes and accessories that are currently in your closet)

Pilot & the future

The solution will be piloted across a target audience of  young, fashion-minded women, potentially college students. This will be ideal as this audience will likely have less items to ‘catalogue’ into their account, so therefore can get up and running more quickly but at the same time have a high need for frequent outfits for social settings.

As the application is rolled out to a wider audience, the algorithm will be able to make even better recommendations as it receives more inputs on what outfits work or don’t work for particular types of customers. For example: by body type, by style, by location, by occasion.

In the future, ideally the application would be able to function as well as or better than a human stylist and personal shopper.  

Risks and Competition

Currently, the typical alternative to this type of product are people (fashion advisors, department store sales reps) that advise customers on their apparel when making a purchase.  Furthermore, online department stores such as Amazon will suggest outfits and articles of clothing based on previous clothing purchases. Because What’s in Your Closet caters to consumers who are looking to create ensembles based on what they currently own, closer competitors are websites and applications that suggest outfits based on what the user types in.  

In addition, there are some technology companies that play in a similar space, but do not tailor based on current items in ones’ closet. Stitch Fix, for example, deploys algorithms to predict which clothing attributes customers will prefer based on a created style profile and then deliver preferred items to the customer’s doorstep to try on.  Other services, like Wantable, also combine predictions based on a personal style profile or quiz.

The key risks to this application involve user engagement. This would require customers to ensure that their items are somehow catalogued into their profile so that the application can share which items look best together based on the event, day, etc.  However, once customers are fully engaged in the application and have items logged in, they will be less likely to leave.

Exit options

Some potential buyers for What’s In Your Closet include major departments stores and retailers like Nordstrom, Lord and Taylor, H&M, and others. This could also appeal to online-only brands such as Cuyana or Nasty Gal.

Sources:

[1] http://www.vogue.co.uk/article/future-of-fashion-artificial-intelligence-post-material-world

[2] https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/intelligence/top-industry-trends-2018-7-ai-gets-real

[3] https://www.stitchfix.com/

[4] http://fortune.com/2018/03/15/fashion-ai-artificial-intelligence-future-kim-kardashian/

[5] https://fashionista.com/2017/11/fashion-brands-stylists-ai-artificial-intelligence-chatbots

[6] https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/opinion/how-fashion-should-and-shouldnt-embrace-artificial-intelligence

Team members:

Pavlina Plasilova, Kelly de Klerk, Yuxiao Zhang, Aziz Munir, Megan McDonald

Opportunity:

It is often not cost effective for organizations to have their own in-house designers, especially smaller or startup organizations. When that is the case, the companies need to contract their design work to other organizations, which can be costly and may not result in satisfactory work. A bad experience with a specific web designer leads to another search and trial with another partner wasting time and resources. Design Hill helps organizations looking for a credible marketplace to source design and creative work for a cost-effective fee. It also allows creative artists to find work and earn income through their submissions.

Solution:

Designhill allows companies to post competitions to source new designs. This is particularly popular with small businesses and startups as these organizations look for a cost effective way to create designs for their company. Artists on the platform will submit pieces of work that meet the requirements and specifications of companies that host design competitions on the platform. The contracting company is also entitled to full ownership and complete copyrights to the winning design.

On the artists’ side of the platform, Designhill allows individuals to gain experience and exposure for their work. It also provides an opportunity to experiment and potentially win contests that pay an income. Additionally, it gives artists a centralized place to see available income opportunities.

The platform doesn’t just provide logos, it has over 40+ different design categories ranging from business cards to leaflets and websites. This allows the platform to meet a multitude of company needs and allows a variety of different types of artists to be on the platform.

Effectiveness, Commercial Promise, and Competition:

Designhill’s platform has proven itself an effective platform for graphic design services. Over 50,000 businesses have successfully sourced high quality logos within one month of its launch [2]. Additionally, the company generated $100,000 within six months of opening its services to businesses and breaks even at unit level on every transaction that takes place on the platform. [4]

Assuming it maintains its current momentum, they are likely to gain enough traction to overcome challenges related to network effects. The platform does an effective job of retaining users through its point incentive program. In addition to monetary compensation, artists accrue points that can be exchanged for additional benefits. With its current rate of success, the company is hopeful to carve out its share of the $54 billion graphic design industry [4].

However, there are some challenges associated with using this particular crowdsourced approach to design-related work.  Some designers work better after becoming very familiar with an organization, its culture and its priorities. So, this type of logo design may work better for smaller organizations that do not have larger overarching marketing programs (and associated budgets) yet.

Competition

Designhill is not the first company to offer crowdsourced logo design services. Companies like Fiverr offer similar services, although none are able to intelligently pair requests with designers to manage the workload.

99designs.com is a website that provides logo design and packaging design services. Others include Crowdspring.com, DesignCrowd.com, Fiverr.com. Designhill’s starting price point is $199, which is relatively low-cost compared with other companies offering similar services. For example, Crowdspring and 99designs start at $299 each. Designhill received the Rising Star award and Great User Experience Award by Finances Online in 2017.  

Suggestions / Improvements:

• Improve website to align with brand and demonstrate competency in design
• Develop minimum quality guidelines to uphold status of brand
• Collect data on adoption and implementation of logos designed on DesignHill to report out on metrics and build consumer base
• Rather than offering services in 35+ design categories, consider deepening expertise in several priority categories

Sources:

[1] https://www.designhill.com/

[2] http://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/designhill-s-ai-powered-logo-maker-is-changing-the-way-brands-are-created-1021048465

[3] https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/designhill-com

[4] https://www.siliconindia.com/news/startups/An-Indian-Startup-Disrupting-The-54-Billion-Graphic-Design-nid-194586-cid-100.html

[5] https://www.groundreport.com/designhill-review-crowdsourcing-actually-worth-time-money/

[6] Video describing Designhill business: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-abeznXL-E

[7] http://bwdisrupt.businessworld.in/article/Designhill-Making-Huge-Strides-Towards-Dominating-the-Global-Graphic-Design-Industry/10-01-2017-111062/

[8] https://articles.bplans.com/top-4-crowdsourced-logo-design-sites-for-small-businesses/

Team Members:

Pavlina Plasilova, Kelly de Klerk, Yuxiao Zhang, Aziz Munir, Megan McDonald

Platform Dashboard:

Example competition posting:

Example Winning Design Work:

Problem: Broken Supply Chains

A small product such as an iPhone can have thousands of different components creating a complex supply chain. Making the product is also a complex process involving setting up contracts and coordinating with numerous suppliers and distributors. During the production process, a product may travel through many different nodes. As an example, the base components of an iPhone could be made at one factory and the finishing components at another factory. When there are defects in the product, it may be difficult to pinpoint when the defect occurred or who is responsible for it because there is no secure ledger that reliably tracks every action performed during the production/supply-chain process.

In short, the often-limited transparency of where a product or component is in the supply chain can make it difficult to address issues related to loss, misdelivery, or decision-making.

Solution: Blockchain in the Supply Chain

To solve these issues, our start-up will integrate blockchain technology into the tracking process of the product’s construction. As a product moves from one location to another, an entry will be made into the ledger system, which tracks when the product left the facility, what state it was in, and who handled the delivery. Once the product is received by the next party, that party will modify the block with information regarding the receipt time, state of the product, as well as any modifications that it makes. During this process a contract can be updated for the parent company to monitor that their suppliers are maintaining the agreed-upon standard of materials being used in the product.

For example, when Apple receives glass covers for their phones from a supplier, the supplier will fill in details regarding the state of the glass and the details of the transaction. Apple can then verify that the agreed-upon units are received as well as the condition they are received in. When auditing the supply chain in case of any disputes, it will be easy to see where mistakes happened and who is culpable.

Furthermore, blockchain technology would apply to both the financial transaction as well as physical transactions of products. In order to facilitate the tracking of the physical transactions, RFID or a similar technology would need to be applied to every shipment.

Ultimately, this innovation could also aid in 1) better tracking against counterfeit products, 2) ensuring compliance with regulations for all components, 3) minimizing transition costs at each stage of production and manufacture, and 4) identifying and mitigating myriad inefficiencies along the supply chain.

Pilot: Apple

In order to demonstrate the application and value of blockchain technology in complex supply chains, we propose using Apple’s iPhone as a pilot.  Every component of Apple’s iPhone would be tagged, either at the individual product level or at the bulk shipment level. As components are assembled and change hands from manufacturer to manufacturer, the transactions would be tracked using blockchain technology on a permissioned ledger. As each transaction happens, both Apple and the manufacturer can enable the supporting financial transactions and smart contracting to occur as well.

Photo credit: Accenture Strategy

Value for both Suppliers and Manufacturers

End-to-end visibility and immutable smart contracts can enable value for both Apple as well as its suppliers, especially in the case of disputes. For a company like GTAT, which supplied sapphire for the screen of iPhones, a contract that is secured by blockchain might have helped save them from bankruptcy. In the original contract that GTAT had with Apple, the company was not allowed to make any modifications to the iPhones. There were also components of the contract that they did not have firm agreements on. Apple was not obligated to buy any of the sapphire GTAT made and as such, when Apple pivoted to a different supplier, GTAT had no way to make Apple buy their product. GTAT was obligated to accept and fulfill any orders by Apple for sapphire glass, but didn’t have any clause stating that Apple always needed to buy the product. GTAT ended up having to pay $439M to Apple for the right to stop supplying sapphire when Apple terminated the partnership, leaving GTAT an obligation to payback the $439M advance used to fund GTAT’s new production facility. [6]

Future

After a pilot with Apple’s iPhone, we plan on expanding to other Apple products.  Once the application has proven itself with the full suite of Apple products, we would then either expand to other companies with similar businesses, such as Samsung or GE or sell this product to Apple. Ideally, we would expand to other businesses and eventually other industries with complex supply chains, including food and beverage, retail, and oil and gas.

Risks and Competition

Primary risks of this innovation are 1) that the technology is still in its infancy, 2) the complexity of the technology and its applications, 3) the decentralized nature of supply chain and logistics for electronics components and the differences in regulations and compliance in different markets where components are produced, and 4) stakeholder adoption across the supply chain will likely prove challenging.

In terms of competition, there are other start-ups emerging in this space, such as companies like the MIT-founded Eximchain [7], and Cloud Logistics. Foxconn, the manufacturer of the iPhone, has developed an early-stage blockchain prototype [8], and Samsung Electronics has a blockchain platform underway. Additionally, Amazon has undertaken projects internally that could pose competition to our product.

Sources:

[1] Deloitte: Using blockchain to drive supply chain transparency https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/operations/articles/blockchain-supply-chain-innovation.html

[2] NY Times. Blockchain: A Better Way to Track Pork Chops, Bonds, Bad Peanut Butter? https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/04/business/dealbook/blockchain-ibm-bitcoin.html

[3] How Blockchain Will Transform The Supply Chain And Logistics Industry

https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2018/03/23/how-blockchain-will-transform-the-supply-chain-and-logistics-industry/2/#7c5625f6416c

[4] Blockchain for the Electronics Manufacturing Services Supply Chain

https://www.ibm.com/blogs/insights-on-business/electronics/blockchain-ems-electronics-manufacturing-services-supply-chain/

[5] Why Blockchain is a Game Changer for Supply Chain Management Transparency

http://www.supplychain247.com/article/why_blockchain_is_a_game_changer_for_the_supply_chain

[6] http://fortune.com/2014/10/29/apple-and-gtat-what-went-wrong/

[7] https://www.coindesk.com/mit-founded-startup-raises-20-million-for-supply-chain-blockchain/

[8] https://medium.com/@hermione1/foxconn-to-blaze-the-trail-blockchain-for-electronics-6742abc8aea1

[9] https://btcmanager.com/samsung-electronics-to-employ-blockchain-technology-to-augment-supply-chain-network/

Team members:

Pavlina Plasilova, Kelly de Klerk, Yuxiao Zhang, Aziz Munir, Megan McDonald

Opportunity:

Our software application will provide prospective car buyers with a better informed and more cost efficient method of selecting the perfect vehicle for them. Hidalgo is a customer profiling platform that partners with insurance companies in order to determine what specific vehicle a consumer should seek to purchase by taking into account tracked data points that insurance companies collect on their insured customers. Given annual vehicle sales of $17M in 2016, there is a huge opportunity for Hidalgo to come in and remove some of the friction involved in the current sales process. Many individuals do not have a strong foundation of knowledge with which to purchase vehicles. As such, many individuals may be buying cars that do not fit their driving style or make emotion based purchase decisions. By removing some of the friction of uninformed purchasing, we hope to boost sales for manufacturers, save costs for buyers, and reduce claims for insurance companies.

Solution:

By taking the data points such as average driving speed, make and model of car, and braking behavior, we can build a large database of driver types and vehicles. For example, if an individual fits the category of a hard braker who likes to drive fast but never has an accident, Hidalgo would recommend a high performance car that fits this specific profile. It would not recommend a slow Volvo. This match process also allows the consumer to save on insurance when they purchase a car that the  insurance company has recommended, a car that matches the individuals driving style leading to safer driving. The more a car fits an individual’s driving style, the less surprises there are while driving resulting in less accidents. Less accidents means less claims processed by insurance companies, allowing them to save substantially on claims processing. The increased saving is then passed partially on to the consumer reducing their car insurance payments.

Effectiveness, Commercial Promise, and Competition:

For individuals who are price sensitive, the promise of lower insurance payments on their car can greatly impact their car purchasing decisions. Additional savings will result from reduced repair and maintenance costs as individuals’ driving style will better match the vehicles physical components. Individuals will also be able to create a profile and add in their vehicle and style preferences allowing them to choose without feeling like they’re being forced to buy a car.

There is quite a bit of commercial promise due to the large size of  the car buying and insurance industry. Insurance companies can maximize their returns by having to spend less on claims processing, which frees up capital to be deployed elsewhere. Car manufacturers benefit by producing cars that better match the buyers in their target markets and segments and boost sales. Hidalgo will earn revenue by taking a portion of claims processing savings as well as a portion of referral fees from a manufacturer when an individual buys a car through our platform.

The platform’s main competitor will be in house data teams of each insurance company. We believe we can avoid competition through the advantage of data collection across different insurance companies and standardization of data within the Hidalgo platform. This allows insurance companies to reduce their own tech development costs while having access to a larger set of data, making the recommendation software smarter and more accurate.

Suggestions / Improvements:

• Improved accuracy of recommendations over time as data set grows
• Improved connectivity so user accounts can be linked via bluetooth to onboard computers within any car
• Partner with car producers to create more sensor points on a car that can be used to inform buyers’ decisions

Sources:

https://www.edmunds.com/car-buying/10-steps-to-finding-the-right-car-for-you.html

https://www.supermoney.com/2018/01/average-cost-car-accident-pay/

https://www.iii.org/fact-statistic/facts-statistics-auto-insurance

https://www.gq.com/gallery/the-gq-car-buying-guide

https://blog.joemanna.com/progressive-snapshot-review/

Team Members:

Pavlina Plasilova, Kelly de Klerk, Yuxiao Zhang, Aziz Munir, Megan McDonald

Opportunity:

Physimax is an Israeli sports technology company dedicated to helping athletes prevent and recover from movement-based injuries with the goal of minimizing dollars lost to injury and preventing career ending injuries for athletes. Physimax helps competitive sports teams minimize players’ injury risk and maximize athletic performance by providing critical and objective data about an athlete’s musculoskeletal mobility, strength, stability and technique through an automated, real-time, visual-analysis test.

Solution:

The technology combines scientific studies, sports medicine protocols, computer vision algorithms and machine learning abilities to provide clear actionable insights for athletes and teams of all levels with the click of a button. The platform uses computer vision and machine learning technology to analyze athletic movement, identifying nuances in movement patterns. It provides tracking, alerts, and recommendations for individualized training programs to minimize injury risk, maximize performance and help injured athletes recover quickly.

Physimax assessments take only 8 minutes and can be administered by anyone; it doesn’t require expertise or prior knowledge. It is administered with a computer and Xbox kinect camera, making it highly portable. The short assessment time makes it possible to assess hundreds of people in hours. The program includes a wide range of automated functional movement tests, and is suitable for many different types of athletes.

Athlete assessment scores are calculated in relation to same-level norms, maximizing the accuracy level of the results. This allows athletes to change their programming to address deficiencies in their performance and lower the chance of injury.

Effectiveness, Commercial Promise, and Competition:

Effectiveness is hard to measure, as it is impossible to test an individual using the technology against a version of himself who has not used the tech. However, the assessment has successfully pointed out deficiencies in athletes’ movements, and athletes have changed their exercise programming to bring their injury risk scores down to the norm.

• The Indiana Pacers have employed the app and now have the lowest salary dollars lost due to injury [1]
• One notable use case was when Physimax was used to identify factors in a Pacers player’s hip movement that were affecting his knee.  After pinpointing the problem, the player received a particular pelvic adjustment that considerably lowered his risk factor of knee injury.

Partnerships with major athletic schools and professional sports teams provide huge potential for commercial growth. Physimax has been validated by several academic institutions including The University of North Carolina, The University of Connecticut and the Military Academy at West Point.

Professional sports teams, however, provide the most lucrative opportunity as they stand to gain the most benefit. For example, NBA teams have lost a collective total exceeding $328 million salary dollars to injury and illness [1] and the MLB lost $1.2 billions on players on the disabled list in 2016 [2].

Sports biometrics is a nascent and highly fragmented space. Physimax faces competition from companies like Kinexon and Kistler, both of which provide real-time data on athletic performance to aid in injury prevention.  Kinexon in particular has a competitive advantage, as its wearable sensor allows a continuous collection of data in different scenarios. Presently, Physimax’s assessment is limited to isolated training sessions. l rehabilitation center.

Suggestions / Improvements:

To better position Physimax for commercial success, the company should consider implementing the following:

• Expand the number of potential injury risk factors the app is capable of evaluating, as it gathers more data and use cases over time. This would generate more accurate injury predictions with fewer false negatives.
• Subtract computer and accessory camera to run the application. The product should be moved onto smartphones for easier assessment and more widespread commercial adoption. This would also help individual athletes to monitor their own recovery.  
• Increase level of detail for assessments and smart suggestions on exercises to address athlete deficiency. For example, the app could tell the subject which muscle is potentially affected in addition to recommending exercises.  
• Add sensor for all game-time and workouts to provide even more information on players

Sources:

[1] http://instreetclothes.com/2018/02/22/nba-injury-report-star-break-2017-18-season/

[2] http://www.businessinsider.com/mlb-injured-players-2017-7

https://www.sporttechie.com/physimax-provides-real-time-musculoskeletal-athlete-testing-to-try-and-avoid-injuries/

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/indiana-pacers-deepen-scientific-foundation-190000943.html?_fsig=IxL2twOGqNQ7wzUPKvuNmw–

Team Members:

Pavlina Plasilova, Kelly de Klerk, Yuxiao Zhang, Aziz Munir, Megan McDonald

 

Physimax assessment, with laptop and camera.

Physimax dashboard.