Realistic treatment scope
Where an AI recovery app can actually help.
Cost Plus PT is strongest when recovery depends on exercise, movement quality, repetition, education, and follow-through. Every condition still requires its own safety screen, approved pathway, and evidence before patient release.
Scope is not the same as release
Three honest readiness levels.
A condition appearing here means the product can realistically support part of recovery. It does not mean autonomous treatment is currently available or appropriate for every person.
Strong digital candidate
Exercise, education, repetition, and visible movement are central. Each condition still needs its own approved screen and protocol before release.
Clinician-directed hybrid
The app can coach and measure home work, but a licensed clinician or medical protocol should establish and supervise the plan.
Specialized validation required
The app may eventually help, but safety, sensor limits, cognition, fatigue, or specialized examination make autonomous use a later research program.
Find a pathway family
Search the recovery map.
Search by body area, a familiar condition name, or an activity such as stairs, lifting, running, or desk work. Results describe the product roadmap; they do not diagnose your symptoms.
16 pathway families shown
Search happens only in this page. It is not a symptom assessment, is not saved, and does not determine which care is appropriate for you.
Lower bodyWave 1
Core candidateResearch screen
Knee recovery
A high-value first family because strength, control, range, stairs, squats, and walking can be coached and repeatedly measured at home.
- Patellofemoral or anterior-knee pain
- Knee osteoarthritis
- Quadriceps weakness and knee stiffness
- Patellar tendinopathy
Spine and trunkWave 1
Core candidateRoadmap only
Low-back recovery
A large access opportunity where education, movement confidence, graded exposure, trunk capacity, and return-to-activity planning are often central.
- Acute nonspecific low-back pain after red-flag screening
- Chronic or recurrent low-back pain
- Movement-related back discomfort
- Trunk endurance and general deconditioning
Upper bodyWave 1
Core candidateRoadmap only
Shoulder recovery
Shoulder range, exercise setup, shrugging compensation, and left-right task symmetry are visible enough to support strong home coaching.
- Rotator-cuff-related shoulder pain
- Shoulder impingement–related symptoms
- Frozen shoulder or adhesive capsulitis
- General shoulder weakness or mobility loss
Lower bodyWave 1
Core candidateRoadmap only
Hip recovery
Hip strength and mobility connect cleanly to walking, stairs, running, balance, and getting up from a chair.
- Hip osteoarthritis
- Gluteal tendinopathy
- Greater trochanteric pain syndrome
- Hip weakness and mobility restrictions
Lower bodyWave 1
Core candidateRoadmap only
Ankle and foot recovery
Balance, calf capacity, ankle range, walking tolerance, and return-to-running milestones create a measurable home pathway.
- Mild lateral ankle sprain
- Chronic ankle instability
- Ankle stiffness after clearance
- Achilles tendinopathy
Spine and trunkWave 2
Core candidateRoadmap only
Neck and upper-back recovery
Mobility, endurance, desk habits, thoracic movement, and graded return to activity can be coached with little equipment.
- Nonspecific neck pain
- Postural or desk-related neck discomfort
- Neck mobility restrictions
- Upper-trapezius and shoulder-girdle discomfort
Upper bodyWave 2
Core candidateRoadmap only
Elbow recovery
Most home work is dosage-driven and visible, while symptom response and work or sport load can be captured conversationally.
- Tennis elbow
- Golfer’s elbow
- General elbow stiffness
- Repetitive-use elbow pain
Upper bodyWave 2
Core candidateRoadmap only
Wrist, hand, and finger recovery
Exercise guidance, timers, tendon glides, dexterity practice, and symptom tracking are realistic; close-up hand tracking needs its own validated camera mode.
- Mild wrist sprain after appropriate screening
- Wrist and finger stiffness
- De Quervain’s tenosynovitis
- Clinician-confirmed mild carpal tunnel syndrome
Whole bodyWave 2
Core candidateRoadmap only
Everyday function and conditioning
Goal-based programs can focus on the tasks people actually need: walking, stairs, lifting, desk tolerance, getting off the floor, and returning to work.
- General deconditioning
- Walking-tolerance programs
- Stair-climbing capacity
- Sit-to-stand and floor-transfer practice
Whole bodyWave 2
Core candidateRoadmap only
Sport and return-to-activity programs
Activity-specific plans can translate strength, mobility, workload, and confidence into a graded return to the user’s chosen sport.
- Return to running
- Cycling mobility and conditioning
- Golf mobility and rotation
- Tennis and pickleball conditioning
Protocol-based careWave 2
HybridRoadmap only
Preoperative and postoperative rehabilitation
The app can be valuable between visits when it follows the exact procedure, date, precautions, weight-bearing status, and surgeon or therapist protocol.
- ACL reconstruction
- Meniscus repair or meniscectomy
- Total knee replacement
- Total hip replacement
Whole bodyWave 2
HybridRoadmap only
Balance, fall prevention, and healthy aging
The app can coach strength, transfers, walking, and balance progressions, but environmental hazards and fall risk make supervision decisions essential.
- General balance deficits
- Fall-prevention exercise
- Older-adult strength and mobility
- Sit-to-stand and transfer training
Specialty careWave 3
HybridRoadmap only
Pelvic health, pregnancy, and postpartum support
Education, breathing, external exercise, and return-to-activity plans can be delivered remotely while preserving the need for specialized examination.
- Pregnancy-related back discomfort
- Pelvic-girdle pain
- Postpartum core rehabilitation
- Diastasis recti exercise programs
Neurologic and sensoryWave 3
Research laterRoadmap only
Vestibular and concussion support
Gaze stabilization, habituation, symptom pacing, and graded activity are digitally deliverable, but dizziness can reflect conditions that require medical assessment.
- Stable vestibular hypofunction
- Gaze-stabilization exercises
- Motion-sensitivity habituation
- Walking while turning the head
Neurologic and sensoryWave 3
Research laterRoadmap only
Neurologic home rehabilitation
The app can reinforce clinician-selected mobility and exercise between visits, especially with caregiver support and fatigue-aware pacing.
- Stroke home-program follow-up
- Parkinson disease mobility programs
- Multiple sclerosis conditioning and pacing
- Incomplete spinal-cord injury maintenance
Medical conditioningWave 3
Research laterRoadmap only
Cardiopulmonary and post-illness conditioning
Walking, breathing, pacing, and graded endurance can be supported remotely when medical stability and monitoring requirements are clear.
- Post-illness deconditioning
- Long-COVID pacing and conditioning
- COPD exercise support
- Stable cardiac rehabilitation home exercise
Reusable treatment engine
What the app can deliver across pathways.
Most of the platform can be reused. The clinical content, eligibility, dosage, stop rules, reassessment, and camera validation remain specific to each pathway.
- 01Range-of-motion and mobility exercises
- 02Stretching and flexibility
- 03Isometric, concentric, and eccentric strengthening
- 04Muscular endurance and graded loading
- 05Motor-control and movement retraining
- 06Core and trunk stabilization
- 07Balance and proprioception
- 08Gait and functional-task practice
- 09Graded exposure to feared or avoided movement
- 10Aerobic conditioning and pacing
- 11Breathing and relaxation
- 12Pain and recovery education
- 13Activity modification and ergonomics
- 14Return-to-work and return-to-sport progression
- 15Flare-up management, maintenance, and prevention
Camera + voice + AI
Each technology has a different job.
Observe what is visible.
- Confirm that the person and required body region are visible
- Count repetitions and time holds when the task is validated
- Estimate broad range, tempo, and left-right task symmetry
- Observe gait, squats, steps, transfers, balance, and other large tasks
- Request a retry or record not observed when image quality is insufficient
Keep coaching hands-free.
- Provide hands-free setup, timing, and one cue at a time
- Accept pause, stop, repeat, easier, and symptom-change commands
- Collect pain, effort, confidence, and delayed-response check-ins
- Read instructions and captions in accessible, multilingual formats
- Use teach-back to confirm that precautions are understood
Personalize inside hard limits.
- Structure the user’s history and goal without inventing a diagnosis
- Choose only from pathway-approved exercises and dosage envelopes
- Explain deterministic progress, hold, substitution, or escalation decisions
- Identify adherence barriers and adapt the coaching style
- Summarize sessions and trends for a clinician when the pathway is hybrid
What remains outside the app
Some care still needs hands, tools, or medical judgment.
- Emergency assessment or medical diagnosis
- Imaging, injections, surgery, or medication management
- Manual therapy, joint mobilization, or hands-on guarding
- Wound care or reliable postoperative wound inspection
- Internal pelvic-floor examination
- Custom splint or orthosis fabrication
- Reliable manual strength, reflex, sensation, or special-test examination
- Clearing a person for sport, work, driving, or independent mobility without the required clinician
Automatic stop and escalation
The product must know when not to continue.
- Suspected fracture, dislocation, major trauma, or complete rupture
- Hot, red, rapidly swollen joint, open wound, fever, or feeling very unwell
- New or progressive weakness, numbness, saddle symptoms, or bowel/bladder change
- Chest pain, unexplained shortness of breath, fainting, or possible blood clot
- Stroke symptoms, new severe dizziness, or unusual severe headache
- Severe unrelenting pain, rapidly worsening symptoms, or postoperative complication
- A task that cannot be performed safely without hands-on assistance or a capable caregiver
Start narrow. Expand with proof.
Knee first. A much larger recovery map behind it.
The first public research screen remains deliberately narrow. Shoulder, back, hip, ankle, wrist, hand, finger, balance, sport, postoperative, and specialty programs move forward only after their own clinical and technical release gates are complete.