Instructional Use of Technology in PT

            Some instructional practices using technology for Physical Therapy could be: online instructional videos, email reminders for patients, and online journals explaining each day how the exercises felt and progression. I feel that meeting with the patient at least once or twice a week is crucial, especially to start them off correctly and to know them on a personal basis.

One of the key aspects of Physical Therapy is teaching your patients how to heal themselves with different exercises and also hands on work. If there were instructional videos online of the different exercises they need to do, you could send them or give them access to this so that they can remember how to do the form correctly. A lot of the patients rehab is done at home and proper form is key.

            Everyone has a busy schedule and sometimes its easy to forget an appointment, if there was a emailing system that could send out an email reminder to the patient a day before their appointment this could decrease the number of missed sessions. Now a day people are more likely to check their email then their home phone. Also by leaving a voice message on their cell phone could also work.

            Patients are more likely to be held accountable if they have to record each day’s progress and exercises completed online. If there was an online journal in which you can access their days work this could help you know how the patient is doing each day even when they aren’t coming in to see you. Obviously you don’t want to create such a system where the patient really doesn’t need to come in anymore but one of the biggest problems is patients forgetting to do exercises or just feeling they are fine too soon and re injuring themselves. These are some ways that patients can remember their appointments, feel more obliged to do their exercises on their own, and do the exercises correctly. Here is a link to a software system which helps increase the communication online between you and your patients, http://spectrasoft.com/practice-management/rehabilitation-software/physical-therapy-software/.