The AMP Journey: From Training Olympians and Returning Elite Athletes to Competition, to Preventing Injury and Promoting Wellness Among Employed Populations
Throughout the course of AMP’s history, our mission has remained the same: to develop technology that facilitates a team-based approach towards achieving an individual goal. The stakeholders involved and the goals they are working towards have changed over the years, and continue to evolve — from elite athletes training for Olympic competition, to patients working to regain full functionality post surgery and now industrial workers remaining fit and productive on the job — but the core tenets of what our platform delivers have remained the same. Digital tools that create and deliver protocols, educational content, communication and actionable business intelligence to all parties significantly increase the odds of a successful outcome.
Originally conceived as an athlete management system by the US Ski & Snowboard teams for the 2012 Olympic Games in Sochi, the AMP Sport platform consolidated and digitized disparate data sources to make performance analytics and athlete benchmarking more efficient. Previously, training plans, competition results and subjective athlete feedback were all paper based, and required months to compile and analyze. AMP’s cloud based infrastructure completed these tasks in moments and made the results available instantly to coaches, athletic trainers, performance staff and athletes regardless of where they were in the world.
In a 2014 interview with Ski Racing Magazine, then Director of High Performance Dr. Troy Flanagan, explained the effect of AMP on the team, “We found ourselves buried in data, so we partnered with a software platform that pulls in all the training data, all the on-snow data, all their performances, all the communications that are going on between the coaches about the athlete,” the AMP Advisory Board member said. “To be honest it has completely transformed our preparation by having more information on each athlete.”
AMP continued to find success preparing athletes at the professional and olympic levels, partnering with the likes of Nike Sparq, The Milwaukee Bucks, and Athletics Australia. A natural pivot towards orthopedic rehabilitation occurred following a deployment with The Steadman Clinic in Vail, CO, a National Medical Center for the US Olympic Committee. The Steadman Clinic began using AMP to deliver return to sport protocols to athletes sidelined by injury or surgery. It was a lightbulb moment for the team here at AMP, as we recognized that the platform could solve real problems outside of sport.
When implementing AMP, The Steadman Clinic sought to improve communication within the care team, remotely monitor patient rehabilitation, and better leverage the data being collected by physical therapists and patients throughout the episode of care. Individualized patient programs — including home exercise and outcome measures — were traditionally delivered via paper handouts, physical notebooks and email messages. Working closely with Rehabilitation Coordinator Mark Ryan, AMP digitized specialized hip protocols for delivery to patients’ mobile devices.
“Our goal was to be able to deliver a comprehensive rehabilitation protocol to our off-site patients in a concise, easy to follow format to help direct the patient and the therapist through each phase of the program,” Ryan explains. “AMP allowed us to include not just the program but exercise descriptions and videos to help deliver a clear message of what we are trying to accomplish.”
Delivering protocols and monitoring patient progress remotely is also a growing concern among military orthopedists, specifically in the Air Force, where musculoskeletal injuries (MSI) are the number one threat to an airman’s tactical readiness. This summer, AMP was granted an AFWERX Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract to address MSI’s through the virtual delivery and management of preventative care and rehabilitation protocols.
More recently, AMP has been placed into service in the burgeoning employee wellness and injury prevention space through a partnership with Rebound Vitality, a healthcare delivery company dedicated to the well-being of public safety workers. With white-labeled AMP web and mobile applications, Rebound is partnering directly with municipalities to change the way that workplace wellness programs for first responders and frontline service workers are delivered and managed.
“The tactical athletes that Rebound Vitality serves are America’s finest and deserve the best,” says Rebound President Dr. Trent Nessler. “Our mission is to outfit them with evidence-based care that is accessible, convenient, modern and safe. AMP Recover’s industry-leading digital health platform is the perfect solution for us as we manage the wellbeing of our members, whose jobs require them to be on top of their game day in and day out.”
Today, AMP is firmly entrenched in a number of performance, recovery and prevention verticals. We’re proud to work with leading providers as they serve a variety of populations. From rehabbing TJR recipients, to preventing injury among tactical athletes, and maintaining general wellness among employees, AMP’s platform is improving lives and productivity. We are excited about continued conversations with employee service providers that are driving innovative programs and best practices around ergonomics, safety, and mental well-being using our technology.
