Does a physio app like this have to be HIPAA compliant?

If you are storing health information on behalf of a clinic in the US, assume yes, and treat it as a scoping decision rather than a feature. The practical version for a first build: keep the data model minimal, do not collect anything you do not use, use a backend that offers a business associate agreement, and validate the product with a friendly clinic before you take on the compliance work. Requirements differ by country, so check yours rather than copying a US checklist.

Should I build the exercise video library myself?

No. Filming a usable library is months of work and it is not what the clinic is buying — they want their own cues and their own patients. Let clinicians upload or record their own clips and reuse them across patients. A demonstration by the clinician the patient actually saw beats stock footage for adherence anyway.

How to Build a Physio Exercise App with AI (2026)

What a physiotherapy exercise plan app needs

Clinician assigns a program of exercises with sets, reps, and frequency
Patient sees only the exercises due today, in order, with a video or photo per movement
One-tap completion logging plus an optional pain score after each session
Adherence summary the clinician sees before the next appointment
Reminder notifications at the time the patient chose, not the clinic

The screens

Screen	What it does
Today	Today's prescribed exercises with tap-to-complete and a session pain score
Exercise Detail	Video or photo, cue text, sets and reps, and what it should not feel like
My Plan	The full program, which days each exercise falls on, and the review date
Progress	Adherence over the last weeks plus a pain trend line
Clinician View	Patient list, assign or edit a program, read logged sessions

The data model

Exercise: name, mediaUri, cueText, defaultSets, defaultReps, holdSeconds, cautionNote
Program: patientId, clinicianId, startDate, reviewDate, status
Prescription: programId, exerciseId, sets, reps, daysOfWeek, notes
SessionLog: prescriptionId, date, completed, painScore, patientNote

The build prompt (copy this)

Paste this into ShipNative and it becomes a working React Native app with these screens, navigable in a live preview, in about two minutes:

“A physiotherapy home-exercise app with two roles: clinician and patient. A clinician picks exercises from a library and assigns them to a patient as a program, setting sets, reps, hold time, and which days of the week each exercise falls on, plus a review date. The patient opens the app and sees only the exercises due today as an ordered checklist — each one opens to a detail screen with a video or photo, cue text, and a caution note. Tapping complete logs the exercise; at the end of a session the patient records a pain score from 0 to 10 and an optional note. A Progress screen shows adherence over recent weeks and a pain trend line. The clinician has a patient list and can open any patient to see the same charts plus every logged session and note, so the next appointment starts from data rather than recall. Reminders fire at a time the patient chooses in Settings. Screens: Today, Exercise Detail, My Plan, Progress, Clinician View, Settings. Needs accounts with clinician and patient roles, and the patient must only ever see their own program.”

Then iterate with small, screen-specific prompts (“make the primary button bigger”, “add an empty state”), preview on your own phone, and export the full Expo project whenever you want. The full method: how to build an app with AI.

How it makes money

Sell to the clinic, not the patient — a per-clinician subscription of roughly $15–30 per month, with unlimited patients. Patients will not pay for homework, but a practice will pay for fewer no-shows and better-informed appointments. Keep the patient app free forever, since charging the patient kills adherence, which is the entire product.

Implementation and the revenue math for every model: how to make money from an app. When you’re ready to ship: App Store and Google Play publishing guides.

Build it now

The prompt above is free to run at shipnative.dev — working physiotherapy exercise plan app on your phone today, full code export, no credit card.

How to Build a Physio Exercise App with AI