Improving outpatient physical therapy

Abstract

Outpatient physical therapy loses effectiveness due to long wait times in between clinical visits. PT Helper is a system designed to combat this disadvantage in three ways. PT Helper increases the effectiveness of the patient-clinician interview conducted at the beginning of each clinical visit by presenting the physical therapist with a correlated account of a patient's pain and activity level. PT Helper increases the likelihood of patients' performing their assigned exercises correctly by providing a medium of instruction that cannot be lost or discarded. Finally, PT Helper encourages patients to perform assigned exercises utilizing both positive and negative reinforcement. PT Helper was developed with feedback from clinical physical therapists and evaluated by former patients, current patients, and an athletic trainer. These evaluations support the hypotheses that PT Helper is a useful tool in both increasing the efficiency of the patient-clinician interview, and encouraging patients to perform their assigned exercises correctly.