SpinED Spine Surgery Education App
Real Clinical Cases, Turned Into a Learning App Medical Students Want to Open
Categories
Healthcare & MedTech
Technologies used
iOS | Android | Web Application | .NET on Azure
About The Client
SpinED Inc. is a Canadian company founded by spine surgeons and professors from McMaster University. The team has gathered real cases from decades of experience in spinal surgery, and its members share a love for both spine surgery and teaching. Through SpinED, they make this case library available to medical students, professors and professionals who want to test and grow their knowledge of the spine.
Project Overview
The Project
A team of doctors was looking for a playful and interactive way to support medical students in their study of the spine. They knew what they wanted to achieve, but not which digital tools could help them get there. Sidekick Interactive first designed a medical education app prototype with them, built around gamification. In 2025, SpinED brought our team back for a new phase of the project, covering native iOS and Android apps, a web back office and a .NET backend hosted on Microsoft Azure.
The Context
The spine is a rich and complex field of study. Yet students, researchers and professionals had no interactive or fun learning tool to work with. The resources available were thorough, but they lacked dynamism. The SpinED team wanted a lighter, more captivating alternative that would still meet the standards of spine surgery education.
Challenges and Technical Constraints for a Medical Education App
The Challenge
The main challenge was turning real spine surgery cases into a learning experience that feels light, without losing the medical rigor behind them. SpinED had to stay technical, reliable and complete for everyone involved in medical study, while keeping the playful side that makes students want to learn with it.
Constraints
Presenting real clinical cases with X-ray images on a phone screen
Keeping content developed and curated by the surgeons themselves
Covering several areas of medical study, including the spinal column
Delivering native apps on both iOS and Android
Connecting the mobile apps and the web application to one .NET backend on Azure
Our Approach and Solution for Gamification in Medical Education
Starting From How Surgeons Teach
The surgeons brought the cases and the teaching method. Our role was to turn them into a product. We started by studying, analyzing and sorting through the different possibilities, then presented a medical education app prototype designed to fill the gaps in existing study tools. It included the features students needed to study, test themselves and progress in multiple areas of medical studies.
Quizzes Built on Real Clinical Cases
SpinED works as a medical quiz app built on real patient cases. Users view each case, follow how it was managed and answer multiple choice questions along the way. Quizzes combine text, X-ray images and questions, and each one ends with a score, so learners can evaluate their level and track their progress in real time. Cases also include evidence-based reviews and critiques of surgical and non-surgical management, along with follow-up exams.
A Case Viewer Made for Medical Imaging
The SpinED library covers imaging from normal anatomy to the most abnormal cases. To review it, we designed a custom viewer where users can pinch to zoom and scroll through images in multiple planes. Our UX/UI design work aimed to make reviewing case images on a phone as easy as possible.
Native iOS and Android Apps With a Web Back Office
The apps were developed natively, in Swift for iOS and Kotlin for Android. Both rely on a .NET backend hosted on Microsoft Azure, alongside a web application that serves as the platform’s back office. Wherever they are, users can open the app and keep learning on the go.
Results and Benefits for Medical Students and Spine Professionals
Results
The new version of SpinED was delivered between January and December 2025. The SpinED app is available on the App Store and Google Play, where students and professionals can work through real spine cases and track their progress.
Why SpinED Chose Sidekick Interactive for Its Medical Education App
SpinED chose Sidekick Interactive to turn a teaching approach designed by surgeons into a product that stays playful for learners and rigorous enough for medical study. Our team worked alongside the SpinED surgeons from the first prototype to the native apps delivered in 2025.
“The SpinED application is all about new learning opportunities with today’s digital tools, offering interactive modules where traditional tools lack dynamism and impact. Beyond the fun aspect of the application, it remains a very technical, reliable and complete support to accompany all actors in the medical study.”
Gregory Cerallo, Co-Founder, Sidekick Interactive
Sidekick Interactive's Expertise in MedTech and Medical Education Apps
SpinED is one of the projects behind our medical app development services. Since 2017, Sidekick Interactive has also been a recognized technology partner for academic, medical and applied research projects through Sidekick for Research. On medical education apps like SpinED, this means working directly with physicians and professors to turn their expertise into tools their students can use every day.
