A year-long community-based project was launched by King’s College Hospital in April 2021 and has now seen two-thirds of patients report health improvements.
The Good Boost project launched in Southwark and has also been trialled in Kingston hospital. It aims to improve the lives of South East Londoners who are living with musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions, patients who are recovering from joint replacement surgery, and older patients within the community.
The project uses funding granted by the Health Innovation Network (HIN) in South London and offers a personalised water-based exercise programme developed by artificial intelligence. Factors used to personalise the programme for each patient included their current health conditions, fitness level and their overall confidence in water.
The project was developed with patients in mind who were not considered regularly active, with 55 percent of participants reporting they were inactive before beginning the programme.
Participants were selected from a wide range of backgrounds, with 80 percent coming from the lower income quintile, and 84 percent black or Asian. Over half of the initial participants were living with other long-term health conditions.
Five months after its launch, over two-thirds of participants had reported an overall improvement in their health, and more than a fifth had reported reductions in their pain levels.
Working within the community, the project hopes to improve the opportunities for patients to have better access to rehabilitation and their own social support networks.
