Physical Therapy: ACL & Knee 4+

I just had ACL surgery recently. A friend had suggested this app after I complained that my physical therapist I’d seen for prehab was not giving me a structured program of exercises to follow and every session was random and felt like a waste of money and time. Curovate has filled that void and I’m glad to have it. But I do have one big issue with the UI/UX. If you don’t mark all your exercises completed, then when you open the app the next day, it takes you to the last incomplete day. This makes is so that you yourself are responsible for keeping track of what day of what section you should be on, and you have to lie about what you did in order to have it go to the correct day on its own. I want to be able to see that I didn’t do everything on a certain day. Maybe my pain was worse that day so i backed off. I would expect this app to work more like fitbit or myfitnesspal and open to the day you’re on and show your variation in adhering to the plan. Instead it’s more like a learning app where you would have to complete everything in one unit before moving on.

Hello, thank you very much for your thoughtful review. You are raising a very important point and one that I have worked on addressing over the past few years. Ultimately it was my decision to structure the app such that it would not advance to the next day until you had completed the previous day. This was done partially for safety to ensure that a person was ready for the next day and in some cases the next stage of exercises. I understand your point that you should be allowed to skip what you are not able to do and move onto the next day. Let me use an example to make a suggestion for how you can use the app - let’s assume that you are on stage 4 day 1. On this day you complete 60% of your exercises and then due to pain, fatigue, lack of time or any other reason you are not able to complete the other 40%. If you have decided to move onto day 2 on the next day simply open up the app and press “play day 1” and when it does you will still see 60% completed, then press on “select day” and in this drop down list select day 2. This will move you onto stage 4 day 2 while still tracking the fact that you only did 60% on day 1 while allowing you to move onto day 2. The only reason we do not automatically move everyone on every day is because we received lots of feedback from people who skipped days and at times weeks of exercise and when they returned to the app they found they had been moved ahead 2-3 stages (one stage is 7 days) and were very discouraged that they could not do any of the exercises. This led many people to stop their ACL exercises completely which we thought was a very bad outcome. This is the reason for the current structure but feel free to try my suggestion if you want to move along in the app chronologically. I’m happy to discuss this further and maybe there is a solution that can help everyone that I have not yet considered. I can be reached at nirtal@curovate.com

Unfortunately for me, I tore my ACL graft again after having the surgery 8 years ago. Fortunately for me, Curovate now exists!

The app is super easy to use and helps you make sure you’re keeping up with your protocol, which can get monotonous and easy to forget at times. It’s customizable to graft type which is super helpful. Plus beyond that, its creator, Nirtal, is accessible and responds to any questions you have very quickly — big question for me was that I had a patellar allograft put in, which isn’t an immediate option when you customize the app. Nirtal walked me through what I needed to know based on my situation.

That’s what I think is great about it — it’s a program designed by a really great PT (Nirtal) who is available to you while you use the app. I got on the subscription service and was able to do a virtual pt session with him, which helped answer a lot of my questions. I’m actually using the app in conjunction with a separate PT, which is probably overkill, but I just find really helps me stay focused and complete everything I need to do at home.

I agree the second time around is tough! I sincerely appreciate the fantastic review. It was a pleasure speaking with you on our video call last week and it is amazing to see how motivated you are to recover after your second ACL tear. I'm glad that I could help you during our session. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns as you progress through your recovery. On a side note, I don't think what you are doing is overkill. I think you are doing your best to make sure this is your last ACL surgery! All the best and stay in touch - Nirtal Shah PT, CEO Curovate

I had my first knee replacement surgery in June of 2022 and got this app after a month or so but wished had it from day one and I would have really benefited. But this 1st surgery was not successful and I had to have a revision surgery in Feb of 2024. I have been using Curovate from day one this time and it has really helped me. I also had a fracture during revision surgery and Nirtal really helped me by answering all my questions promptly and guiding me as to which exercises I shouldn’t do given the fracture. I am using this app along with in person manual PT. It is a great supplement as I can choose to do the exercises that really helps me and skip the ones that are easy. Plus in person PT will be done soon and I will continue with the app as long as I want. Thank you Nirtal for all your support and also even showing how my husband can use the app for his balance issues. I appreciate it. I highly recommend this app!!

Thank you very much for the kind review. It has been a pleasure working with you and helping you through your revision knee replacement. I think you have done a great job on your recovery and all of your hard work is paying off. I wish you the best with your continued knee replacement recovery. As always if you have any questions about your knee replacement or the video based exercises reach out to me via the in-app chat and I will be happy to help. As for your husband there are some aspects of the app that he can use now for daily balance training. Send me a chat message and I can help him out as well.