Physiotherapy Companion App: What Actually Comes Back Between Appointments
By The Kitt Team
You have explained the program properly. The client nodded in all the right places. You both know the version walking out the door is already a little lossy. The problem is not the explaining; it is that nothing you have handed over has ever been able to answer back.
The gap between appointments is where most home exercise programs fall apart. There is no mechanism connecting what the client does at home to what you know about in the clinic.
What a physiotherapy companion app is
A physiotherapy companion app is not a general fitness app, and it is not a library of exercise videos. It is a mobile application that sits on the client’s side of a published treatment plan, collects what the client actually does, and reports that back to the clinician in real time. The defining feature is the return path: the data lives on the clinician’s record.
The right test for any companion app is not what the client sees when they open it. The test is what comes back to you after a week. If nothing comes back on its own, it is a delivery tool with an app on the front.
Why the gap between visits is the problem worth solving
Between sessions, you work from whatever the client recalls at the next appointment. Research shows 40 to 80 per cent of medical information is forgotten immediately, and almost half of what is remembered is remembered incorrectly (Kessels 2003). That study examined general medical consultations, not allied health.
The adherence picture is harder still. A systematic review of 30 studies found non-adherence to home-based physical therapy can reach 70 per cent (Essery 2017).
The specific cost is three weeks lost before discovery. When a client stops after week one and you find out at week four, the window for early intervention has already closed.
How the plan gets to your client
You build and publish the plan in kitt Clinician, which shares it directly to kitt Companion. Existing clients receive it immediately; new clients get a secure link expiring after seven days, with a consent screen before they can access anything.
What travels is the full treatment plan structure: goals, exercises with demo media, day and week structure, day notes, and take-home instructions. The client opens the app and their specific plan is there.
Edits push out automatically. You do not need to republish or resend anything.
What your client actually does in the app
The client sees a day-by-day schedule: sessions marked done, partly done, or to do. Future days are visible but locked until they arrive. Each exercise opens as a card showing sets, reps, duration, frequency, and demo media.
Logging happens per set: reps or duration, pain on a 0 to 10 slider, added weight, and a note if needed. Captured in the moment, not recalled later at the clinic.
Automated check-ins prompt the client on pain, completion, and how they are feeling, delivered by push notification with email as a fallback. If a client has a question, they can type it or use voice; the assistant draws answers from their specific plan, not general advice.
The assistant is built not to diagnose or prescribe, and is explicit that it is not the client’s clinician. A red-flag list covering chest pain, breathlessness, dizziness, and neurological symptoms instructs the client to seek help immediately. These are design decisions, not outcome claims.
What flows back to you
Every logged completion appears on the clinician’s side in real time. The exercise compliance view shows what was done against prescription: sets, reps, and pain score at the time of effort, not reconstructed from memory. The Companion view shows consistency and weekly pattern. Clients falling behind show up there before they tell you at the next appointment.
This is what separates a companion app from a printed handout: the record is shared, and what the client does on their side becomes visible on yours. A 2024 umbrella review of 19 systematic reviews covering 205 trials found adherence-enhancing interventions such as booster sessions and goal setting improved physiotherapy adherence, with a pooled standardised mean difference of 0.24, and 0.39 for booster sessions alone (Ley and Putz 2024). These are small to moderate effects. Knowing a client is struggling before the next appointment is the precondition for any of those strategies to work.
The journey, stage by stage
| Stage | What your client does | What you see |
|---|---|---|
| Receives and accepts plan | Opens secure link, accepts consent, accesses plan in Companion | Shared plan and Companion connection appear on the client’s record in kitt |
| Works through a day | Opens daily schedule, logs each set with reps, pain score, and notes | Exercise compliance view updates in real time against prescription |
| Reports pain or missed session | Automated check-in prompts a response, or client flags the issue directly | Companion view shows the gap; the pattern is visible if it continues |
| Week ends | Returns to the day-by-day schedule; completed sessions show as done, any missed sessions remain outstanding | Weekly consistency pattern visible on client record |
What happens to the data
When a plan is published, a copy is made and re-encrypted under a separate key, keeping each organisation’s data isolated. Edits push out automatically without requiring a new share. Either the client or the clinician can end the share at any time; because the removal is soft, the completion history already collected stays available on your side.
Where it sits in your setup
kitt Companion is included with every kitt subscription, not a paid add-on. At $69 per clinician per month, with a one-month free trial, no credit card, and no lock-in. kitt is not a practice management system and does not touch billing.
For clinics using Cliniko or Nookal, optional integration means clients sync across. An Australian randomised trial of 182 adults with knee osteoarthritis found an exercise app more than doubled complete adherence at 26 weeks, 36 per cent against 16 per cent, while function measured on the WOMAC did not differ between groups (Hinman 2026, MappKO trial). If you are comparing exercise program software options, that result is worth sitting with.
FAQ
What is a physiotherapy companion app?
A physiotherapy companion app is a mobile application that presents a client’s exercise program on their phone and logs what they complete between visits. The defining feature is that the data returns to the clinician’s record. kitt Companion works this way: plans built in kitt Clinician, logged data visible in real time.
Is kitt Companion an extra cost on top of a kitt subscription?
No. kitt Companion is included with every kitt subscription at no additional charge. The one-month free trial requires no credit card.
What does my client need to do to get started?
For an existing client, publishing the plan from kitt sends it directly to their app. A new client receives a secure link expiring after seven days, then signs in or registers and passes a consent screen before the plan opens.
Can I stop sharing a plan with a client?
Yes. Either side can end the share at any time. The plan is removed from the client’s app, but the compliance and pain data logged during the share stays on the clinician’s record.
The short version
- A companion app is only worth using if what the client does returns to your clinical record.
- kitt Companion is included with every kitt subscription, not a separate product.
- Real-time logging captures pain scores and sets completed in the moment, not reconstructed from recall.
- The compliance and Companion views show which clients are falling behind before they tell you.
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