Effective physical therapy requires hands-on interaction and communication, but there are always ways for therapists to introduce and use technology to enhance patient outcomes.
One of the major goals of physical therapy is to help a patient reach pain-free, comfortable movement and overall health when dealing with aging, a past injury or illness, or at the onset of a disability. Physical therapy is usually a first step in a holistic care plan because it is the most conservative and least intrusive approach to managing pain and dealing with health issues.
This is why physical therapy is one of the most important approaches to managing pain and increasing the quality of life for all patients, regardless of their age or how severe their injuries may be.
Each patient is different, they have different pain tolerances, different motivations, different views on physical therapy, and different goals for what they want to accomplish with physical therapy. Therapy is constantly evolving to provide a more realistic prognosis for each patient and take advantage of advances in technology.
What Are the New Ideas for PT in 2019?
Physical therapy is not a static field of medicine. Few medical fields are truly static, but when it comes to improving a patient?s range of motion, ability to work, or ability to perform simple physical functions, physical therapists are one group of medical practitioners that is not afraid to use new technologies and new ways of thinking to help their patients. Here are some of the ways the physical therapy field is changing:
Limited Use of Assistive Devices
Devices like canes, braces, crutches, and special footwear can still be important when totally necessary, but modern physical therapy moves past these devices, considering them mental roadblocks to wellness. Areas of weakness need to be incorporated in the total range of motion, and therapists now understand that keeping the injured area still only makes it weaker.
Focus on Returning to Regular Activity
This means you may not need to return to a full range of motion in order to enjoy regular activity. Focusing more on how to use joints better through smaller activities like combing hair or brushing teeth will lead to walking, climbing stairs, or lifting and carrying things.
Staying Active Means Regaining What Was Lost
In the past, a doctor?s advice after an injury was bed rest and a break from regular activity. But recent research has reversed that idea. Staying active during recovery can lead to faster recovery and a quicker return to regular activity. This means a shorter rest period after the surgery or injury and an almost immediate regimen of physical therapy. The point is to rebuild general strength, which will lead to healing injured areas quicker.
How Tech Is Improving How We Approach Physical Therapy
The road to recovery may be a long one, which means physical therapists need to use every tool at their disposal. Technology opens up new means to monitor how treatment methods are working. This provides an objective approach and eliminates the guesswork from healthcare decisions.
Use of Health Apps to Monitor Overall Health and Recovery
Smartphones and tablets are normal parts of our daily lives and they can be used as a critical tool for physical therapy. The role of a therapist is expanding to that of a movement and pain mitigation coach, and this role becomes much easier with the communication and monitoring tools offered by today?s smartphones and wearable health monitoring technology.
Virtual Reality Produces an Immersive Environment
Often thought of as a medium for video games, virtual reality is a tool that physical therapists can use as part of exercise programs to allow for a more interactive treatment experience. Virtual reality can help the elderly, disabled, and patients with traumatic injuries.
Kinetisense Tech Is at the Forefront of Physical Therapy Tools
Using advanced movement technology and a combination of our proprietary movement-assessment software and a single, front-facing 3D sensor, the Kinetisense system is a cutting-edge tool that eliminates the guesswork from physical therapy.
Gone are the days of ?eyeballing? results using grids and archaic assessment techniques. Kinetisense uses objective, video-based, augmented reality assessments that deliver highly accurate results. Automatic reporting that includes data arranged into charts and graphs lets practitioners know which therapies are most effective for a given patient and their condition.
Each assessment takes only seconds, meaning progress can be tested more often without sacrificing valuable time for therapy. Therapists can show their patient the progress they are making using objective information and data, which increases the overall clinical outcomes.
The Applications for Kinetisense are Limitless
Especially for physical therapists, our technology is the comprehensive system PT practitioners need to improve their techniques, expand their knowledge about a patient, and provide a complete assessment of a patient?s range of motion all from a single, portable camera.
Our holistic approach to body motion analysis gives you the most objective, comprehensive look at the functional movement patterns of any patient. Combined with our automatic reporting, trend data is assembled into charts and graphs to help patients and athletes reach their desired outcomes.
Contact Kinetisense today for a demo of our system or to talk to one of our representatives about how our technology is leading the way to help more patients recover from injury, regain the mobility they once had, and enjoy life without restrictions.
