Built in the treatment room

I’m Lachy, a physiotherapist. Most of my day is spent explaining things: why a shoulder hurts at night, why a tendon needs load rather than rest, why a scan full of long words isn’t the end of the world.

The old way

For years I did it the way most of us do. A plastic shoulder model with half its pieces snapped off. Five minutes scrolling Google Images for a picture of the injury that was close enough. A quick sketch on the back of an exercise sheet.

I’d watch patients nod along, and I could tell that some of them hadn’t really seen it.

Where it hit home

A patient comes in with pain every time they reach overhead, and the plastic model gives me a ball, a socket and a few chunky bits of plastic. It tells them almost nothing.

In Lumen, I peel the deltoid back and there’s the rotator cuff: four muscles wrapped around the joint, with the supraspinatus sitting exactly where they’ve been pointing. I lift the arm and show how the cuff keeps the ball centred in the socket, and you can watch it land.

From there, the exercises make sense, because they can see what each one is for.

Why it matters

That moment is the whole point. A patient who understands what’s going on is more likely to trust the plan, do the exercises and come back.

So I built Lumen

I couldn’t find a tool built for that. The big anatomy apps are excellent atlases for students, but in a consult I don’t need every foramen of the skull. I need the right structure, on screen, in seconds, looking good enough that a patient leans in.

So I built Lumen. Every region, every layer and every label has been checked by a team of medical professionals.

Lumen is still growing, and the people using it shape what comes next. If there’s an injury you wish you could show, email me at [email protected]. I read every one.

Lachy Theodore, physiotherapist and founder