Good Boost Wellbeing: Transforming gyms into community MSK hubs
Mobilising the UK leisure sector to deliver inclusive, accessible, personalised and gamified health services for older adults with MSK conditions. Promoting healthy ageing with fewer years lived in disability.
About the project
Good Boost is a rapidly growing UK SME delivering pioneering medical technology. Combined with the collaboration, expertise, and network access of national MSK organisations (Versus Arthritis, Arthritis Action) and the leisure sector trade body (UKactive), the project consortium’s market-demand-led and co-designed solution will transform community gyms and leisure centres into ‘MSK hubs’. This has the potential to save the NHS £200m by 2030.
Musculoskeletal disorders (MSKDs) disproportionately affect older adults, with almost 2/3rd of the 20.3m people with MSKDs aged 55+. They are the primary cause of disability and represent £90bn health and economic cost. They disproportionately impact ethnic minorities and low-income households, creating deep health inequalities. With 5.8m people on waiting lists and demand outstripping NHS resources; MSK interventions are needed that do not depend on Physiotherapists and traditional NHS services. Furthermore, to be effective, they must be easily accessible and co-designed to meet older adults’ needs.
This project co-designs, develops, evaluates and validates a commercially scalable solution to leverage 7,000+ community leisure venues to deliver high-quality, evidence-based MSKD services tailored for older adults, integrated into primary care. This suite of personalised services will promote healthy ageing with fewer years lived in disability.