Digital solutions for rehabilitation and healthcare in later life – Timo Hinrichs appointed Professor of Sports and Exercise Medicine

Physician Timo Hinrichs began his role on October 1, 2025, as Professor of Sports and Exercise Medicine at the University of Jyväskylä, strengthening research and education in the field. His research focuses on the role of physical activity in maintaining health, supporting rehabilitation, and enhancing quality of life. At the core of his work is the use and implementation of digital solutions to support mobility and health of older people.

Hinrichs’s key priorities include building collaboration and strengthening networks – within the university, with academic partners, and with healthcare providers both locally and internationally.

Published

6.11.2025

One particularly topical area of research is promoting and maintaining physical activity among older adults, people with multimorbidity, and those with mobility limitations and high care needs.

“In ageing societies with rising multimorbidity and limited healthcare resources, new approaches are urgently needed both in Finland and internationally. Digital solutions offer significant potential to support everyday mobility,” says Hinrichs.

Hinrichs uses innovative sensor- and app-based tools to assess and monitor real-life mobility and functional capacity, and promotes their integration into care practices.

“The goal is to embed these measures into rehabilitation and healthcare."

New solutions can bring meaningful benefits to older adults, healthcare professionals, and care providers.”

Physical activity supports rehabilitation and resilience

In addition, Hinrichs develops and evaluates exercise-based rehabilitation and health promotion programmes for individuals with acute health events, long-term conditions, or age-related limitations. He also studies how individual and environmental factors influence mobility, participation, and everyday functioning.

His research also focuses on resilience to health events. This includes, for example, proactive measures before planned medical procedures (prehabilitation), as well as strategies to support recovery after unexpected events such as falls or stroke.

It is equally important to explore how physical activity and health can be promoted across the entire life course.

“Preventive actions taken earlier in life can help compress the period of morbidity and disability in older age. This improves both individual quality of life and the sustainability of healthcare systems.”

Timo Hinrichs is a physician specialized in sports medicine and in physical and rehabilitation medicine. His career combines clinical practice, research, and teaching. After clinical training in several hospitals in Germany, he worked at the University of Bochum as a consultant physician and research group leader focusing on ageing and health. He later led a group on shoulder health and mobility at Swiss Paraplegic Research before moving to the University of Basel, where he headed the group “Mobility and Health in Older Age” and served as senior consultant in sports medicine. His research spans clinical, epidemiological, and interventional studies and is complemented by long-standing experience in teaching and academic supervision.