Wish there was more that you could do for your patients with fractures during that critical healing stage? For the sports physio, hand therapist, podiatrist and other musculoskeletal practitioners we work with, a shared frustration is explaining to patients the way they’re going to optimise their care and recovery, and get the patient’s body back to full strength and unrestricted function, only after their fracture has taken some much-needed time to heal and repair. While they can help to off-load the fracture site, prevent further damage, and give advice on the do’s and don’ts – there’s been no alternative to having to tell patients that you just have to let your body heal the damage over the coming weeks or months. Until now.
Introducing: The Melmak LIPUS
The Melmak LIPUS stands for Low Intensity Pulsed Ultrasound and it’s a medical device that is proven to advance the healing of fresh, delayed and non-union fractures. Specifically, it is proven to heal non-union fractures by 86%, and helps new fractures heal faster by an average of 38%. Of course, all results vary based on the type of fracture and its location, but even with some variation in percentages, these results mean that there is not only less pain and frustration to patients – but also a reduction in the burden of socioeconomic costs, personal costs and an improved overall quality of life.
LIPUS works by delivering mechanical energy in the form of acoustic pressure waves through the skin. Given that the proportion of sound waves absorbed by a specific tissue is directly related to that tissue’s density, and that bone usually has the densest tissue in a given area, the waves transmitted by the Melmak can effectively target the areas of bony abnormalities, according to where the practitioner places and directs the device.
As the acoustic waves induce micromechanical stress, they culminate in the stimulation of various molecular and cellular responses involved in each stage of the bone healing process, from activating cell reproduction and protein expression, to enhancing bone remodelling at the fracture site. Melmak sessions take just 20 minutes to gain all of these benefits and accelerate the healing of both new and slow-to-heal fractures.
Melmak safely and effectively treats the:
● Foot
● Ankle
● Tibia & fibula
● Femur
● Humerus & radius
● Scaphoid
● Hand
● Wrist
● Clavicle
Does Melmak Fit With Your Clinic?
Our practitioners have found the integration of the Melmak as a service in their clinics simple. After identifying patients with fractures, the Melmak device is offered as rental for between 1-2 months initially. The cost on average for the first month of rental is $330 with the following month/s at a discounted rental of $275, and many practitioners are offering ‘bundles’ where the LIPUS is offered together with their other services at a discounted package rate, optimising their profitability from the device, as well as producing pleasing patient outcomes.
The device is easy to use with no comprehensive training required for practitioner or patient – simply learn the straightforward steps to apply the device, how to activate it which is done with one button, and how to best explain the mechanism of action in simple terms to your patients. Then give them an additional set of written instructions to take home, or direct them to a video tutorial on your website. Melmak must be prescribed by a health professional, meaning patients can’t obtain it from anywhere else. Its portable nature means that it’s easy for patients to take home and return – or for your clinic to offer drop-offs and pick-ups at an extra cost.
You can start offering treatment with the device immediately to the right patients – when patients present for injury care with a fracture, which is often accompanied by a tendinopathy, you can immediately incorporate the device rental and daily use into their management plan and easily explain the clear benefits. Going forwards, you can also use targeted marketing to those with fractures – particularly to those frustrated with slow-to-heal fractures that are restricting their livelihood.
Note: Want free tips for your Melmak marketing strategy? Click here.
The risk of the Melmak to both the patients and the clinic is minimal as there are no known side effects, it is non-invasive, and the device has been providing proven results for over 20 years. It can be used if there are plates or screws on the fracture site, including shortly after surgery, and there are no contraindications or complications with using the device.
The Market Opportunity
With few clinics currently offering this kind of healing with these results, we’re excited to be offering this opportunity to be an early adopter with the LIPUS technology. The market opportunity is large, with sports-related and accident-related fractures being just one target market, but other markets like poor bone health also being a significant problem with 165,000 fractures due to poor bone health in Australia.1 Even the surgical management of fractures has been found to have an 8% re-admittance rate within two years post-fracture from complications including delayed healing, malunion and non-union.2 This gives a unique opportunity to establish strong and prosperous referral pathways with a variety of health professionals including surgeons, particularly after joint fusions and osteotomy procedures.
The ROI For Your Clinic
As with any new service, the return on your investment into the device must be justified – and with Melmak, it easily is. Practitioners using the Melmak fracture healing device are currently seeing returns of up to $13,500 annually for their clinic, with very minimal effort required on their part. This estimation also takes into account the finance cost for the device, marketing costs and accessory costs. For a full breakdown and walkthrough of the ROI for Melmak, click here.
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| The calculations are based upon average 5 patients with 8 week rental. This is an example calculations only and actual returns may vary depending upon other business conditions and external factors. |
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Melmak Is The Missing Piece Of The Bone Healing Puzzle
If you’re feeling like the Melmak could be the missing piece of your clinic’s fracture management and recovery puzzle – it may well be. We know it can be difficult to understand the true value and benefit of a device for a clinic and its patients just from reading about it – so if you have any questions, want to have a discussion, or would love to see the device in action in your own hands, we welcome you to call our RehaCare Customer Service on 1300 653 522 to chat about how we can best help you.
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[1] https://www.garvan.org.au/news-events/files/know-your-bones-consumer-report-2018.pdf
[2] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30551632/https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2762261/#idm139744155529728title
