When Ben Catania was a student at Jamesville-DeWitt High School, all he wanted to do was play soccer. Then an injury changed everything.
Catania tore ligaments in his ankle during his senior year of high school with the Red Rams. Despite extensive physical therapy and a return to sport at Cornell University, he never fully recovered. But he inspired him to come up with the idea of improving physical therapy for both caregivers and patients.
“Once I got hurt, I had to reframe my life and think about what I was going to do,” he told syracuse.com | post standard. “I did a bit of coding as a hobby in high school. I was always interested in starting my own business at some point.”
Catania launched Yoomi, an AI-driven wellness platform that connects patients and physical therapists doing exercise programs at home. The app includes an interactive game that assesses participants’ movements with real-time video, and uses motion tracking her technology to improve rehabilitation with motion modification and motivational messages. increase. For example, the leg raise program shows the range of motion that a physiotherapist can adjust for a patient to work on at home.
This image, courtesy of Yoomi, shows leg raises for physical therapy.
“The biggest problem in physiotherapy is lack of patient compliance and engagement. Also, patients do not consistently complete exercises at home, so physiotherapists spend a lot of time retraining the same exercises. Must spend” contest.
“Hail Mary” is a national initiative that awards aspiring entrepreneurs tuition and seed funding for their business ideas in a “Shark Tank”-like competition. Catania pitches directly to Dallas Mavericks owner and entrepreneur Mark Cuban, Elon University footballer he is TikTok star John Seton, and Dallas Cowboys executive he is vice president and chief brand he pitches directly to officer Charlotte Jones. He was one of three finalists invited to perform.
Catania said he spoke with many physical therapists, including himself, while researching the project. is taking place.
During the demonstration, he encouraged Cuban to try out the basketball program. The program virtually monitored Cuban’s form as he shot into the hoop. Cuban giggled as he stabbed a nonexistent ball into the net and gave some serious advice.
“You are a marketing company, not a technology company,” Cuban told Catania. “Thanks to technology, there are thousands of people who can do that, right? It is a relationship of
“Shark Tank” star Mark Cuban tries out Yoomi’s basketball program to help physiotherapists assess movement. (photo courtesy)
A celebrity jury picked Yoomi as the winner, awarding Catania $23,000 in tuition at Cornell University and $23,000 in seed money for his business. The prize split pays tribute to the Doctor’s famous 23 flavors of peppers.
Catania, who graduated from JD in 2019, said he will be able to work at Yoomi as a full-time CEO when he enrolls at Cornell University in the spring with a business degree. In the meantime, he and his team are working on market approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
“This is a tool we’re giving physiotherapists and hospital systems,” Catania told syracuse.com. “Patients have login details that we can access…we need to be careful with this because we are working with patient data.”
It’s also the largest amount Yoomi has raised to date, and will go a long way in helping his team of ‘broken college students’ build their own platform. He said the tuition would also help his family, who have many health problems.
“This is going to be a real game changer,” said Catania.
This 2017 file photo shows Benjamin Catania (No. 12) competing in a Jamesville DeWitt Soccer match against Oswego. (Photo – Roger Hagan)
For more information about Yoomi, please visit www.yoomi.com. https://yoomi.health.
