20.02.2025

Around 245,000 people in Lower Saxony suffer from rheumatism. Many of them are of working age, and due to their condition, some face significant limitations in their professional and personal lives. The high costs of medication further underscore the need for treatment solutions. The RELIEV project, developed by Hannover Medical School aims to bridge this gap through a digital therapy platform.

Image: A woman in a blue sweater holds her aching hand; Copyright: Karin Kaiser/MHH

RELIEV should help people to manage their illness according to their own needs and adapt the therapy offers to their daily lives.

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In addition to drug therapy with biologics, cortisone, and painkillers, physiotherapy is a key component in managing symptoms. However, many patients struggle to access necessary therapy due to time constraints, mobility issues, or limited practice capacities. The RELIEV app combines in-person care with digital support, making therapy more accessible and reducing in-office visits by up to 90 percent. “The rheumatism app is not a purely digital offering, but rather it accompanies and supports outpatient therapy,” explains Professor Alexandra Dopfer-Jablonka, senior physician at the Clinic for Rheumatology and Immunology. “We want to help people to help themselves and enable those affected to manage their illness according to their own needs and to adapt the therapy offers to their real lives.”

Digital support for personalized rheumatism therapy

The app offers:

Video instructions for physiotherapy exercises

Guidance on handling the disease and psychological stress

A chat function for communication with therapists and clinics

Feedback tools to track therapy progress

By tailoring treatment to individual needs, the app ensures that patients receive location-independent access to verified physiotherapy, occupational therapy, and psychotherapy services. “Users can select the services that are right for them from a modular system, apply them at their own pace and thus take their own healthcare into their own hands,” says Dopfer-Jablonka.

Long-term benefits for patients and the healthcare system

RELIEV builds on insights gained from the project ErgoLoCo, which developed an online occupational therapy platform for long-term COVID-19 symptoms, and the DiEgO project. “In these projects, we have already been able to determine that self-determined patients are more likely to stay on the ball and recover more sustainably,” explains Professor Dopfer-Jablonka. Unlike short-term prescriptions, the RELIEV app provides ongoing support, encouraging long-term exercise habits that can delay the need for expensive biologic medications. For example, postponing biologic treatment by one year for 100 patients could save approximately €1.2 million in direct costs, not including economic benefits from improved work capacity.

Next steps: from pilot project to standard care

The project will initially test the app with 50 patients, followed by an expanded study involving 100 participants. The ultimate goal is to integrate RELIEV into standard care, making it available as publicly accessible software that could be adapted for other chronic diseases.

MEDICA-tradefair.com; source: Hannover Medical School

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