Innovative Graduate Sports Therapist Claire McMullan
Lands Top Award for Ground-breaking Idea
Society Member, Claire McMullan, was recently announced a winner of the Women in Business (Northern Ireland) ‘Power of 4 Pitch
Award’ for her business concept Health Gainz. Using innovative technology, it aims to resolve patient adherence issues for at-home rehabilitation exercises.
The Women in Business awards stemmed from a programme designed to support female entrepreneurs in Northern Ireland, with
the ‘Power of 4 Award’ being created to engage women of all backgrounds and ages. Claire pitched her ground-breaking idea to
three judges who chose her to share a £10,000 prize pot with three other aspirational business women, all working in different industries.
They based their decision on the viability of the business and how likely it was to succeed. Claire graduated from the University of Huddersfield in 2007 and is based in Lurgan, Northern Ireland, which is where she established her Sports Injury, Nutrition and Massage Clinic, CliniSport.
It was through working at CliniSport, along with her final year research into issues with exercise adherence, that
Claire gained the knowledge and experience needed to find a solution to the problem. She came up with the idea of
Health Gainz, offering patients a ‘virtual therapist’ to guide them through home-based rehabilitation exercises,
helping them to complete each exercise set by their therapist.
The software, still in its research phase, will use non-contact sensors and a camera to set targets, give feedback on
performance and track the patient’s progress; this will be made available to both the therapist and patient.
Claire’s share of the prize money will go towards developing and ultimately launching the technology.
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