Patient compliance remains such a difficult challenge among the majority of physiotherapists because a list of excuses come from patients, like:
- I’m not getting time
- I forgot to do that
- Are these exercises worthwhile for me?
- Exercises are painful
- I’m feeling better, so I don’t need to follow the training program
- Even my therapist can’t guide me well
Sounds familiar?
Yes, but you have to keep patience and understand their pain points.. Most of the patients tend to skip physiotherapy exercises that cause pain; therefore, they don’t follow your exercise instructions at their home. These patients’ non-compliances significantly impact the therapeutic outcome.
According to the publication of the US National Library of Medicine, 40% of patients are reluctant to follow treatment recommendations when therapists advise significant lifestyle modifications, along with exercises.
These patients’ non-compliance and non-adherence to treatment reduces the chance of getting a successful treatment outcome.
It is undoubtedly a challenging situation for therapists.
Sometimes, they have to prepare a new treatment plan and start from scratch, which is time-consuming and can be a bit expensive.
The scenario is very common. Sometimes that might have happened to you when you changed the way of treatment to deliver better output.
However, the initial treatment plan couldn’t do its job just because of patient noncompliance.
So, what can you do to resolve this problem and increase patient-compliance to recommended physiotherapy treatment?
Advanced technologies like Artificial intelligence, Motion capture & biofeedback, and Mobile health application (mHealth) have shown to resolve the patient-noncompliance issue and encourage them to perform their therapeutic exercises in the right way.
In this article, we are going to talk about how technologies increase patient engagement and minimize patient non-compliances issues.
If you feel this article can help you, please stay with us until the end!
Use technologies and increase patient compliance to your physiotherapy treatment
Technologies actively involved in rehabilitative care therapy are Artificial Intelligence, Motion capture and biofeedback, Healthcare mobile applications (mHealth), and Gamification.
Let’s talk about them one by one.
Artificial intelligence (AI) in favor of patient-compliance
AI has the capability to let you track your patients and see whether they are following your instructions or not at their homes.
Now AI-based devices have become a holy grail for rehab care therapists worldwide. Its fantastic application makes the monitoring and assessment process very easy for therapists.
AI-integrated devices have the ability to adapt to altering requirements and learn from experiences. Therefore, these devices play a valuable role in a physical therapy program.
Many healthcare companies have launched AI-based products to help rehab care therapists.
For example, a reputed healthcare device manufacturing brand has launched a wireless motion tracker that patients attach to their bodies. It works as a digital therapist and motivates patients to do the pre-programmed exercise by the physiotherapist. It is a great way to engage patients in their physiotherapy training.
With this wireless motion tracker, you can monitor and analyze patient data and adjust rehabilitation programs,…
Motion capture and biofeedback
Video motion capture & Biofeedback: A relatively new addition to physiotherapy. It also plays a crucial role in increasing patient adherence to the recommended training program.
The motion sensor comprises accelerometers, GPS, and gyroscopes to provide 3-dimensional motion capture. Now therapists use this motion capture technology to quantify and visualize the real-time movements of patients during physiotherapy exercises. This technology can be used as biofeedback.
You can use this technology to monitor whether your patients are doing the recommended exercise in the right way or not at their home..
Real-time motion capture & biofeedback are not only beneficial for the therapist but also help to develop patients’ awareness of their movements. It helps them to modify their movements based on the therapist’s cues.
Mobile applications (mHealth) at your service
You often assign your patients a physiotherapy home exercise program to improve outcomes. Here mHealth plays a significant role.
It has been proven that mobile health increases patient engagement in physiotherapy home exercise programs (PT HEP), which maximizes the outcome of the therapy.
With the help of a mobile application, you can track the frequency of home exercises done by your patients by checking the logging dates. The login and log-out time will also indicate their exercise engagement time.
Besides, smartphone applications can prevent appointment cancellations through effective reminder systems and minimizes therapeutic patient non-compliance.
So a personalized mobile application could be an excellent investment to increase patient adherence to treatment and minimize the physiotherapy non-compliances.
Gamification
Gamification makes the physiotherapy exercises engaging and interesting with lots of fun!
Therefore, many healthcare device manufacturers integrate games into their newly launched devices.
Squegg is one of them. They designed a digital smart grip strengthener for upper limb rehabilitation care. It comes with exciting in-app games and fun exercises that engage and motivate patients to perform recommended hand exercises.
Gamification makes the Squegg product unique. Physical and hand therapists worldwide have used these products for hand therapy exercises. They like this product because of improved patient compliance through higher engagement and better tracking.
So, try out Squegg digital smart hand gripper, and let your patients experience an engaging treatment with lots of fun!