The answer, according to digital therapeutics pioneer Kaia Health, is potentially. Kaia Health are launching a new feasibility study to find out. If successful, this study could inform healthcare policies worldwide. Kaia Health have been developing which uses innovative artificial intelligence based motion tracking technology to address various health challenges. The next step with such applications is to assess how its digital therapeutic treatment can assist with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) in relation to Japan's ageing population.

Kaia Health, a self-styled digital therapeutics" startup, has pulled in $10 million in Series A funding for an app-based approach to chronic pain management. The idea is to offer an alternative to painkillers, using mobile technology to deliver what the founder describes as multimodal, "mind body therapy" for musculoskeletal (MSK) disorders -- comprised of guided physical exercises, psychological techniques and on tap medical education. "Once you fall into this category of you're a chronic pain patient, and not just you have acute pain for two or three days, then this is the best therapy to do," says co-founder and CEO Konstantin Mehl. "But at the moment because this therapy is so expensive only 2% of the patients who should get access to it actually get access to it and the other 98% of patients are treated with treatments against acute pain, like painkillers and surgery… This is why there's this crazy cost explosion when you look at the costs in the healthcare systems." The 2015-founded startup has developed a personal trainer app that uses computer vision technology so it can act as a fully autonomous exercise coach. The app works by visually monitoring the user as they perform exercises (via their smartphone's camera), enabling it to keep track of repetitions and also provide vocal feedback -- to correct posture and motion. The idea is to offer a more accessible and less expensive alternative to the one-on-one in person physiotherapy which a person suffering chronic pain from a MSK disorder might otherwise use to manage their pain -- such as by visiting a dedicated pain center for weeks of guided treatment. However as Mehl notes that can be prohibitively expensive and also entail long wait times to get seen. Kaia's first focus has been on back pain which Mehl knows plenty about -- having suffered himself for two years. His struggles to find effective and affordable pain management were the inspiration for setting up the company, he tells us. The goal he's shooting for with Kaia is to democratize access to proven multimodal therapies and reduce reliance on pharmaceuticals -- pointing to rising use of opioid-based painkillers, including in the U.S., where reliance on the drug has been driven by over-prescription leading to an epidemic of addiction and rising numbers of overdose deaths. "Most treatments against chronic back pain are just crazy expensive and crazy ineffective.

With or without weight, it's widely regarded as the best exercise you can do. But one that's easy to get a little bit wrong and ruin all those benefits. So here's Kaia Health's Perfect Squat Challenge app, developed with input from both physiotherapists and sport scientists to help you nail the form. In the company's press release, Maximilian Strobel, Head of Kaia Health's AI Lab said: "Breakthroughs in AI-powered motion tracking and correction technology mean that everyone now has access to a virtual personal trainer and physiotherapist on their iPhone -- and can perfect exercises such as the squat." "Perfect" is a brave word choice -- debate over ideal squat form often reaches yanny-or-laurel levels -- but the app is, still, rather remarkable.

Executing the perfect exercise move is as much about technique as it is strength. And fitness enthusiasts have been paying personal trainers for decades in order to learn how to correctly pull off the right moves. Now there's a free app that offers to do the same thing by using motion-tracking technology and artificial intelligence to help you perform the perfect squat. Called the Perfect Squat Challenge, it was developed by digital therepy company Kaia Health who consulted with physiotherapists and sport scientists to figure out a squat that most of us can achieve. Once you fire up the app, you're guided through the motion by a virtual assistant called Kaia.