Introduction
Technological advancement is a boon for medical science. As technology advances, it is obvious that medical science is incorporating it in different sectors. Rehabilitative care is also one of them. Rehabilitative therapy is improving day-by-day with the involvement of advanced technologies. Some of the technologies are helping therapists and caregivers to increase their productivity. There are many ways rehab care therapists can incorporate technologies to modernize their treatment and enhance the efficiency of their practices.
If you’re a rehab care therapist (hand therapist/ Occupational therapist/ Physiotherapist), then this article is going to enrich you with high-quality information and help you to ameliorate the efficiency and productivity of your practice. Including tech in your practice will help you save time and effort without compromising on the quality of the treatment. Nowadays, incorporating technology in rehab care practice is easy and simple for tech-savvy, as well as for the ones who are less familiar with the technology.
Additionally, in the era of high demand, giving proper treatment manually without technology has become challenging too. Do you know why?
Because of the delicate balance needed between the number of therapists or caregivers and the ever-increasing demand for rehab care therapy. Without technology, there will be a significant gap between rehab needs and the availability of resources.
Let’s point out the Challenges in rehabilitative care nowadays:
- The imbalance between therapy demand & resources
- Limited therapy time
- Increasing health cost
- Demographic challenges
- More elderly patients with limitations
Considering all of the above points, if you integrate advanced technologies into your practice, you will accommodate more patients in the long run. So, make your therapy more technology-centric because technology-assisted training can be an authentic solution to cope with all of the above problems. We’ll talk about it in detail in the next part of the article.
Significance of technology-assisted training in rehabilitative care
A European research study, “Use of time by stroke patients: A comparison of four European rehabilitation centers”, reported the imbalance between the time required for hands-on care & time therapists have in their hand, which drastically reduces the quality of the treatment.
Intensity and repetition are two very important components in rehabilitative care, but sometimes these can be difficult to achieve manually. However, technology-assisted training is here to support and assist all rehab care therapists by increasing the therapy time and intensity.
Robot-assisted Rehabilitation; Emerging trends in Biotech
Robots are used in technology-assisted training. It is also known as Robotic technology, which has developed in recent years to enhance the efficiency and quality of rehabilitative care. The robot comprises faster and more powerful computational approaches amalgamated with sophisticated electro-mechanical components.
The most significant advantage of using robot technology in rehabilitative care is that it can deliver high-repetition and high-intensity task-specific training (which is manually hectic & time-consuming). Considering the benefits of this promising technology, the number of therapy robots has increased dramatically in the past two decades.
When we’re talking about technologies, Robot-assisted technology is not the only one. We need to mention other technologies which passively and actively increase the productivity of rehab care therapy.
Dedicated rehab-care applications:
These applications are very good at boosting patient-engagement & compliance rates. A dedicated application helps patients to accomplish their regular physiotherapy targets, and increases home exercise program compliance. Additionally, an advanced rehab application is featured with symptom monitoring, thought tracking, and gamification (to increase mindfulness). All of these features increase homework compliance and ameliorate the result of the prescribed Home Exercise Program (HEP).
Gamification & Virtual Reality:
Lack of engagement and patient-noncompliance are two very big problems in rehabilitative care. To resolve these problems, experts integrate gamification into rehabilitation. Gamification and virtual-reality( VR) increase patient-engagement by motivating them to complete rehab care programs.
Body-sensor:
It makes therapists’ jobs easy by providing real-time feedback, and accurate digital measurements which are essential to provide optimal care. Body sensors, along with other technologies, are helping therapists to design rehab care programs in a more productive way.
Tele-medicine & remote monitoring process:
Now with the involvement of tele-medicines and remote monitoring processes, patients and therapists can both cope with the demographic barrier issues. Therapists can serve quality treatment worldwide, and patients can be connected to the best therapists through remote care. These technologies save time and travel expenses on both ends. Therapists can check patients’ progress and participation in HEP through a remote monitoring process, and patients are allowed to heal from home as well.
Multiple ways tech can improve the efficiency of rehab care therapists
Improve Communication:
In medical science, communication is essential between therapist-to-therapist and therapist-to-patient. Communication ensures that everyone is on the same page. Recent technologies help therapists to collaborate and make better therapeutic plans for their patients.
Reduce assessment errors:
Technological involvement in rehabilitative care has significantly reduced human errors in assessment. In medical science, a small mistake can cause a serious issue. Therefore, therapists use the latest technologies to make therapeutic procedures top-notch and flawless.
Increase convenience:
Remote monitoring processes and tele-medicines increase convenience in rehab care treatment. Patients and therapists don’t have to travel to the clinic which saves time and travel expenses. Patients can receive treatment from their home environment, and therapists can monitor their progress and engagement through the remote-monitoring process.
Offer more security:
Technological integration makes rehab care therapy more secure by offering access control. When technologies align with the healthcare process, the whole procedure gets personalized with high data security. Simply technological integration to rehab care helps therapists and other staff to spend less time on data security, allowing them to be more focused and productive on treatment.
When we are talking about technological advancements in rehabilitative care, we can’t forget to mention the name of “ Squegg”. It is a blue-tooth enabled digital dynamometer. It is a smart device integrated with a dedicated application to measure, monitor, & improve grip strength. Technologies such as blue-tooth connection, app integration, gamification make the device more productive than a conventional dynamometer. It is an FDA approved device which can be used for remote monitoring.
Hand therapy has become more exciting than before with Squegg. Seeing its exciting features, hand therapists love to include this device in their therapy program.
So, try out this product now & share your experience with us!