Apollo Hospitals, Asia’s largest caregiver and KOS Group from Italy specialising in social health and advanced healthcare support system, have established a joint venture company  - ApoKOS - the first complete rehabilitation centre in the country, to address the huge and untapped potential in medical rehabilitation services in the country.

Dr. Antonello Morgantini, director, ApoKos Rehab Pvt. Ltd., and Dr. Rahul Khandelwal, COO, ApoKos Rehab Pvt Ltd., announcing the launch said, ApoKOS is India’s first complete and international standard integrated rehabilitation centre for neurological, orthopaedic, cardiopulmonary, paediatric, geriatric and cancer patients.

India's rehab and physiotherapy market, both organised and unorganised, is estimated to be approximately Rs. 20 billion per annum. Currently the market is concentrated around home or out-patient physiotherapy and for most patients this provides sub-optimal care leading to slow and incomplete recovery.

ApoKos, a 50:50 JV between Apollo Hospitals and KOS, aims to bridge this service deficiency. It will address the rehabilitation needs of patients immediately after completion of their acute care and provide intensive and comprehensive therapy to maximise their chances of speedy recovery. KOS, which runs 20 rehabilitation centres in Italy with enormous expertise in rehabilitation coupled with Apollo's deep knowledge of the Indian healthcare market, presents a thorough combination to penetrate and exploit that huge potential in the market.

We bring time-tested European rehabilitation protocols to India for the first time. Focused on providing intensive, goal-oriented rehabilitation, these protocols help us provide the best chance of recovery for patients, says Dr. Antonello Morgantini.

Starting with the first hospital in Hyderabad, ApoKos plans to expand its network to all the metros over the next 3 to 5 years. All these hospitals will be owned and managed by ApoKos. The ApoKos Rehabilitation Hospital at Hyderabad is a 64 bedded centre with a mix of single and sharing rooms, besides fully equipped physiotherapy and occupational therapy gyms. The hospital will have state-of-the-art robotic rehab equipment like Ekso GT bionic exoskeleton, Hocoma ArmeoPower etc.

ApoKOS provides the hope, expertise and motivation for patients who have experienced a life altering medical condition or clinical procedure. We are committed to bridging the gap from illness and injury to health and wellbeing, says Rahul Khandelwal. Together, we bring years of accumulated experience in supporting and nurturing patients back to life and living, he adds.

The Ekso Bionics Ekso GT robotic exoskeleton, the first such equipment in Asia, is a comprehensive gait therapy tool which provides an unparalleled rehabilitation experience for patients and therapists alike. It enables functional based, intensive, over ground gait training and is designed to support the re-learning of correct step patterns and weight shifts, potentially mitigating compensatory behaviors. ArmeoPower is the world’s most advanced arm rehabilitation device, which enables highly intensive arm rehabilitation for early-stage patients even before they develop active movement. The ArmeoPower was shown to lead to faster and better recovery after stroke compared to conventional therapy (Klamroth-Marganska et al., Lancet Neurology, 2014).