Five Questions and an Elevator Pitch: AdaptAble

1. What is the need that your project seeks to address?

Maritha: Every year in the United States, approximately 800,000 people experience a stroke, and many of these individuals require customized wheelchairs to regain mobility and independence. Patients often wait anywhere from four to six months, and sometimes even one to two years, to receive a wheelchair tailored to their needs. This delay limits their functional independence, financial stability, and overall quality of life.

Xucheng:  Currently, after a stroke, patients typically spend one to two weeks in the hospital. Upon discharge, they're provided with a temporary wheelchair, which is not customized. Patients must find an occupational therapist (OT) who can assess the patient's unique physical and functional needs and submit extensive documentation to insurance companies to request a fully customized wheelchair. Even after approval, not to mention the limited availability of OTs who can perform assessments, numerous additional adjustments are necessary, prolonging the process even more.

Simone: With AdaptAble, we are developing a digital platform to streamline the process of obtaining a customized, usable, comfortable wheelchair.

Isabella: As someone passionate about equitable healthcare access, I’ve been struck by how complex and fragmented the current system is. Our solution aims to bridge the gaps between patients, therapists, and vendors making it easier for people recovering from stroke or living with other mobility-limiting conditions to access the right mobility aid faster. We believe that no one should have to wait months to regain their independence.

2. How does your solution work?

Maritha: We identified that the primary cause of delays isn't the assessment itself, but rather the extensive back-and-forth communication with insurance companies. Therapists frequently have to justify their recommendations, respond to denials, and propose alternative solutions, all of which significantly prolongs the process.

Isabella: We’re building a vendor-agnostic, Electronic Health Record (EHR)-integrated platform that centralizes and streamlines the pre-authorization workflow for mobility-related durable medical equipment, starting with wheelchairs. Today, physiatrists, therapists, and vendors rely on fragmented communication – emails, PDFs, phone calls – which causes major delays in getting patients their equipment. Our solution embeds directly into the EHR system, enabling all parties to collaborate in real time: from the physiatrists writing a prescription in the EHR to the vendor who makes the submission to insurance. All parties, including the care team, can track the status of the request and receive updates on approvals or appeals. This eliminates unnecessary delays, reduces administrative burdens, and gets mobility devices to patients faster, while also laying the groundwork for a broader care coordination platform that can expand beyond occupational therapy and physical therapy use cases to other types of durable medical equipment (DME). Longer term, we are excited by the potential of technology to automate more of the assessment experience to reduce the time for wheelchair customization.

3. What motivated you to take on the project? And what activities have you undertaken?

Maritha: We were drawn to this project after learning how difficult it is for patients, especially stroke survivors, to access the right wheelchair at the right time. We’ve spoken with occupational therapists, assistive tech specialists, insurance experts, and patients to understand the systemic bottlenecks in evaluation, referral, and reimbursement. We’ve mapped the current journey, identified key pain points, and begun developing a digital tool to improve access and streamline the workflow.

Simone: Approximately 5.5M Americans use a wheelchair, growing annually by about 500K users. Despite this, and even with substantial technological investments in healthcare, it can take months and up to 2 years to receive a functional, personalized wheelchair. We felt strongly compelled to address this unmet need and improve the lives of stroke patients and others facing similar mobility challenges.

Isabella: We plan to pilot test early prototypes with therapists, patients, and DME vendors this summer to iterate based on real-world workflow needs.

4. What’s the most important thing you learned in advancing your project?

Maritha: One of the most valuable lessons is the insights that can come from deeply listening to the experiences of our diverse stakeholders. It's one thing to gain a surface-level understanding of the challenges through background research, but it's entirely different to spend time talking directly with people. By engaging in these conversations, we've understood incentives, pain points, and opportunities.

Isabella: We are also learning the importance of designing solutions that work within existing reimbursement and clinical frameworks, while still being scalable enough for real-world use.

Simone: We've learned that while many people care about the length of the customization process, there hasn't yet been an effective way to address the challenge. Because our team doesn't come from traditional clinical backgrounds, our fresh viewpoint allows us to approach the problem differently and identify innovative opportunities that others might overlook. The issue we're tackling involves multiple interconnected areas, including insurance processes, clinical workflows, and patient experiences.

5. What advice do you have for other aspiring health technology innovators?

Maritha: Take the time to dig deep into the experiences of your stakeholders to understand their pain points. That insight is what leads to meaningful and impactful solutions.

Simone: The cost barrier is the number one hurdle for providers and payers, no matter the efficacy, because there is limited financial capacity to spend on new systems. Solving who pays for what, and figuring out the business model, is critical to determining a feasible solution.

Isabella: While innovating in healthcare can be more challenging than in other sectors, it's possible to build a solution and business model that also significantly improves people's lives. My advice is to push yourself to find creative ways to combine impact and sustainability.

Xucheng: Regardless of your background or skill set, you'll need to deeply engage with your team and stakeholders to gather diverse insights. Synthesizing all this information and developing a viable solution is challenging, but it's also incredibly rewarding. Embrace the complexity, be patient, and stay committed to the process.