ExerciseRx® is a University of Washington-developed digital health platform that helps patients and care teams use physical activity to support health and wellness. The platform was developed in 2019 through a collaboration between The Sports Institute and the University of Washington Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering Ubicomp Lab under the leadership of Cindy Lin, MD, clinical professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine and director of The Sports Institute.
ExerciseRx has been used in research studies across UW Medicine, UW Medical Center – Northwest, and Fred Hutch Cancer Center, supporting hundreds of participants over the years.
Now, a new mobile application, UW Medicine ExerciseRx, will help bring the platform into clinical care. Developed through a collaboration between ITS Software Solutions and The Sports Institute, the app extends ExerciseRx beyond research settings and into patient care.
The mobile app allows clinicians to prescribe ExerciseRx through Epic. Patients can securely connect wearable devices and smartphones to share activity data, such as step counts, with their healthcare team. Rather than requiring clinicians to review large amounts of raw data, ExerciseRx highlights meaningful activity measures through a dashboard within Epic. This makes it easier for care teams to track progress, provide encouragement, and support healthy movement.
The project also marks an important milestone for ITS Software Solutions and UW Medicine technology development. The UW Medicine ExerciseRx mobile application is helping establish approaches that can support future digital health initiatives, including:
- First internally developed mobile application by ITS Software Solutions
- First application integrated with Epic patient authentication through MyChart
- First application built on UW Medicine's modern Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud foundation and landing-zone architecture
- First application using AWS DynamoDB as a core data platform
- First implementation of AWS Simple Notification Service (SNS) mobile push notifications
- First application using AWS Serverless Application Model (SAM) infrastructure-as-code templates to automate deployment of cloud services and APIs
- First end-to-end cloud-native application developed by the team.
The project is also among the first applications built on the secure cloud foundation established by the UW Medicine cloud platform team. By using standardized cloud services, automated deployment processes, and modern mobile development tools, the team created a framework that can support future application development while maintaining security, compliance, and operational consistency.
Beyond the technology, ExerciseRx demonstrates how collaboration between clinical and technical teams can drive innovation. Working closely with Dr. Lin and The Sports Institute, the team created a practical pathway for digital health adoption at UW Medicine. The platform helps clinicians use patient-generated health data in a way that is actionable rather than overwhelming, while giving patients more opportunities to take an active role in their health and wellness.
"Physical activity is integral to health. This transformative partnership between ITS Software Solutions and The Sports Institute allowed us to be trailblazers in bringing a homegrown digital health solution to UW Medicine patients and clinicians," Dr. Lin said.
The platform is currently in a research pilot phase and is expected to launch for UW Medicine clinical use in 2027. In addition to supporting patient care, ExerciseRx is helping establish the standards, frameworks, and cloud-based practices that may support future UW Medicine digital health applications.
Project team
The project was made possible through collaboration among ITS Software Solutions, the UW Medicine cloud platform team, and The Sports Institute, including Drew Paxton, Yanping Cao, Penglong Wang, Robert Beerman, Dr. Christopher Lewis, Otari Ioseliani, and Theresa Kehne.
For questions about the project, visit ExerciseRX or email exerciserx@uw.edu.