Sports Injury Rehab Protocol Compliance Drops to 30-50% for Home Exercises, Causing Reinjury

What: After a sports injury, physical therapists prescribe home exercise programs (HEPs) that are critical to recovery, but dropout rates reach 70% for physiotherapy patients, and only 35-50% of patients adequately perform prescribed home-based rehabilitation exercises. Athletes receive a paper handout or a brief app-based exercise list, leave the clinic, and have zero accountability or feedback until their next appointment days or weeks later. Why it matters: Non-adherence to rehab protocols directly leads to incomplete recovery, chronic pain, and reinjury. So what? Reinjury rates for common sports injuries like ACL tears are 20-30% within two years, and poor rehab compliance is a major contributing factor. So what? Each reinjury cycle costs $10,000-$50,000+ in additional medical treatment, lost wages, and extended time away from sport. So what? Insurers and healthcare systems bear escalating costs from preventable reinjuries, contributing to rising premiums for everyone. So what? Athletes who cycle through incomplete rehab and reinjury often abandon their sport permanently, losing the physical and mental health benefits of athletic participation. Structural root cause: Physical therapy billing is structured around in-clinic visits, not home exercise outcomes. Therapists have no visibility into what patients actually do at home. Existing digital rehab tools (apps with exercise videos) track self-reported completion but cannot verify exercise quality, form, or intensity. The SIRAS (Sport Injury Rehabilitation Adherence Scale) only measures in-clinic adherence, leaving the majority of rehab — which happens at home — unmeasured and unaccountable.