Experienced gamer now in physiotherapy wonderland

In Autumn 2018 there was a change in the PhysioTools leadership team: established entrepreneurs Nora and Mark Musgrove retired and Hannu Vuola was chosen as Chairman of the Board by the new owners.

Hannu is an experienced professional in communication, marketing and corporate strategy. He has worked as Head of Communications in one of the largest Nordic investment companies involved in digitalising the online stock exchange; managed Nitro Games, a mobile game company and co-founded Goodlife Technology, a digital rehabilitation company. He has also been a sports journalist.

Why were you interested in PhysioTools?

PhysioTools is a pioneer in digitalisation and crowdsourcing. These concepts have been a central part of the company’s strategy since before these terms existed. For decades, Physiotools has been a true market leader in the exercise software business and has proven to be more than able to satisfy their customers needs.

Five years ago, together with Janne Niittymäki, I founded Goodlife Technology Ltd, a Finnish MedTech start-up company. Since its beginning, the company has been an important partner to PhysioTools – it is responsible for PhysioTools’ mobile app, PT Momentum.

What potential do you see in PhysioTools?

When Janne and I started to develop a business combining technology and rehabilitation/physiotherapy, an experienced physiotherapist from South-East Finland said that PhysioTools is the Ferrari of exercise software. Since then I have recognised that this is a good analogy.

PhysioTools’ mission is to help therapists develop fast and easy-to-follow training programs for their clients, using the world’s largest exercise library. In the future we want to offer these training programs to our customers’ clients in a more up-to-date and simpler way.  We will focus on developing our software to make it even easier to use and create content based on our customers’ wishes. The desire to help our customers help their clients, though not a new concept, is one which PhysioTools embraces and is one of the key factors in our planned future development.

What changes will we see in PhysioTools in the future?

I would use the word ‘develop’ rather than ‘change’. The management and personnel at PhysioTools have done extremely good work. Our partners are world-class specialists and our customers are the experts in physiotherapy and rehabilitation. I believe that you shouldn’t try to fix something which isn’t broken. In the near future we will develop content and technology to make the lives of our customers and their clients even easier. Easy-to-use is the key word for our strategy.

How do you see the future of the industry?

Medical technology is today one of the main topics when we talk about future growth businesses. In many countries the healthcare industry will have to face huge challenges: there is less money available, more people to take care of and an aging population in the Western world. Rehabilitation – training – therapy – getting people into better shape, however you want to define it, will be one of the most important problems to solve, especially in Europe and North America. 

Many people are not feeling well and are not in good physical condition. Western societies can tackle this problem only if our industry takes a bigger role in the future. Our industry will grow, and its social responsibility will grow even more. We will need more technology and variable content to encourage people to move and take better care of themselves.  Exercises that are both fun and easy to do will be very important if we want people to start training. By developing the best tools for that, PhysioTools will remain a market leader in the future.

Hannu Vuola

Age: 49
Education: MSc Political Science, MBA
Work experience: 30 years of communication, marketing and supporting small companies.
Hobby: Beach volleyball (my first company was an indoor beach volleyball centre, after 13 years, it’s still doing well). I try to play there three times a week.
Interests: Reading (especially biographies), listening to good rock music.
Voluntary activities: I am a member of the board of the Finnish Volleyball Association.
Favourite game right now: Toon Blast. It’s worth trying if you need a short break during the day.