Seongjun Yoon, CEO of DYPHI
Developing ‘AndanteFit’, the world’s first product applying digital-based physical function assessment technology for older people
Utilizing LiDAR and various sensor fusion technologies to precisely measure older people’ movements
Its flagship product is ‘AndanteFit’, featuring the world’s first digital-based physical function assessment technology for older people proposed by DYPHI. This product enables non-specialists to easily and quickly perform various physical function assessment protocols for older people that are widely used clinically.
Yoon said, “We use LiDAR and different sensor technologies to accurately track how older people move,” and added, “This helps us automatically gather all the physical function measurements needed for clinical use.”
Physical function indicators are essential across diverse clinical domains. For example, global sarcopenia diagnostic guidelines mandate the acquisition of short physical performance battery (SPPB) scores, walking speed, and the five-time chair stand test. The integrated care for older people approach (ICOPE) proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO) for comprehensive older people care in communities and primary care also recommends administering the short physical performance battery (SPPB) to assess mobility, leading to personalized frailty management based on their scores.
Furthermore, the medical paradigm is evolving toward utilizing various physical function assessment tools as objective evaluation metrics for older adult patient populations in areas such as the enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) paradigm, heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and other chronic disease management.
“Globally, the importance of physical function assessment for older people is being emphasized in healthcare and community care paradigms. However, the gap between clinical necessity and practicality in real-world settings inevitably widens. AndanteFit can innovatively solve this problem.”
Yoon stated, “Furthermore, digital intervention technologies necessary for preventing and improving frailty in the older people are becoming an important topic beyond the evaluation stage.” He added, “Clinically verified comprehensive care methodologies for older people typically involve multicomponent interventions, among which multicomponent exercise is clinically recommended at the highest level.”
“Ironically, in reality, exercise for the older people still relies entirely on individual will and practice. It is a fact that older people lack the ability or support to design exercise suitable for their functional level. DYPHI has long recognized this problem and has conducted years of research on digital therapeutic technology that helps older people receive guidance on optimized exercise at home and, further, practice it themselves. We are developing the smartphone app ‘SarcoFit’, which can be used by late-stage seniors with an average age in the mid-70s or older. It provides personalized coaching based on optimized exercise types and intensities tailored to each individual’s physical functional status, even in unsupervised environments.”
Since older people with declining physical function often suffer from sarcopenia, SarcoFit is being developed as a digital therapeutic device targeting sarcopenia. Over several years, the company had gathered substantial evidence demonstrating its practical usability by the target older people population in real-world settings and its clinical efficacy. Based on this, DYPHI plans to commence a demonstration clinical trial by the end of this year.
Regarding future plans, Yoon stated, “Starting with technology for assessing the functional status of frail older people, DYPHI has expanded its scope to include IT and AI-based intervention technologies specifically tailored for the older people.” He added, “Our vision is to develop a comprehensive, lifecycle solution enabling everyone to age healthily. While our solutions have primarily targeted individuals aged 65 and above, our future goal is to complete a full-cycle healthy aging technology and service ecosystem. This will enable individuals to prevent aging from the middle-aged stage onwards, allowing them to enjoy a healthy life without frailty until the very end.”
Founded: November 2018
Main business: physical function assessment technology and digital intervention technology for older people
Achievements: pioneered the Korean sarcopenia and frailty assessment market by commercializing AndanteFit
reporter jinho lee
jinho2323@hankyung.com
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