New Technology in Healthcare: Where Rehab Therapy Thrives

The healthcare sector is changing rapidly, largely due to advancing technology and expanding patient expectations. These evolutions in technology have opened the door to the use of a plethora of data, offering opportunities for improvement and innovation in patient care and cost savings. New healthcare technology has undoubtedly proven advantageous to many, but not all organizational leaders and staff are enthusiastic about trying much of this new technology.

Below, we’ll discuss the various new technology in healthcare that has emerged in medicine, particularly in rehabilitation therapy. Then, we’ll dive into how to get buy-in when implementing these tech advances in your clinic.

The Importance of New Technology in Healthcare

When the topic of healthcare technology comes up, it’s admittedly rare to hear how it’s implemented in the field of rehab therapy. Often, the focus of IT applications in healthcare is in primary care or chronic disease management, but rehab therapy offers just as opportunities. After all, it’s rehab professionals who help patients recover their functioning after an illness or injury. 

Let’s look at four key reasons technology is essential in rehab therapy. Feel free to use these suggestions to gain your team’s support in implementing some new technology.

1. Tech Tools Bridge the Care Gap Between Clinic and Home

Rehabilitation therapists often provide patients with treatment approaches they can implement in real-world settings, but monitoring their success using these outside of the clinic has historically been challenging. Most of the time, therapists have to rely on patient opinions and interpretations, which are valuable, but not always the most accurate or timely. 

Objective data, such as tracking a patient’s heart rate or the number of daily steps they’ve taken, are measurable and, therefore, manageable. With this information, you can properly monitor their progress and adjust their treatment plan as needed. 

Today, capturing these insights in real time is achievable thanks to gadgets like smart watches (and more we’ll discuss later). Care no longer begins and ends at the clinic; you can connect with and assist your patients whether they’re at home or on the go. 

Rehab technology bridges the gap and permits the continuity of care, making it easier for patients to reach their goals as soon as possible with timely intervention.  

2. Tech Maximizes Treatment Efforts

Technology is an amplifying element, allowing rehabilitation professionals to work at the top of their ability. 

Instead of sifting through piles of paperwork to find and review a patient’s medical history, a tool like an electronic medical record (EMR) allows immediate access to their treatment record and more. Rather than taking 15 to 20 minutes to document defensible evaluations, automation could help you do so in just five or six minutes. Predictive analytics, a component of artificial intelligence (AI), which may be included in your EMR already, even has the power to assess data and predict how a patient might respond to a specific treatment or their likelihood of missing an appointment. 

All these technological advances free up a practitioner’s time, allowing for more accurate and personalized care that boosts patient satisfaction and quality of care. Tech can also enhance the operational efficiency of rehab clinics, streamlining tasks even for administrative staff. 

3. Technology May Reduce Medical Errors

We also can’t overlook technology’s ability to decrease the number of medical errors in a clinic. When you consider the most common root causes of medical mishaps, which include  human error, communication snags, and organizational process deficiencies, the right technology (some of which we’ve discussed already) aids with each of these. 

Medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the United States, so helping to tackle this issue using innovative tools and instruments would be a major accomplishment for the progress of the industry.

4. New Tech Increases Treatment Accessibility 

Unfortunately, many patients have foregone much-needed rehabilitation services, often due to issues with access to care. Common perceived barriers to physical therapy include: 

• Location and transportation 
• Work schedules
• Problems with access to childcare
• Concern for the length of session times 
• Frequency of treatments 
• Duration of treatment plan 

When patients cannot participate in therapeutic services, they risk experiencing delayed recovery, increased pain, muscle weakness, limited range of motion, and other consequences that can negatively affect their quality of life. However, technology can help rehab therapy professionals meet patients where they’re at. 

Patients can receive support from the comfort of their home with options like telemedicine. By minimizing barriers with technology, you not only increase accessibility, but also offer patients greater convenience and flexibility, resulting in increased patient engagement and  improved health outcomes. 

New Healthcare Technology Availability in Rehab Therapy 

Now that we’ve shared a few reasons why implementing new technology in healthcare is essential for better clinic operations and better patient outcomes, let’s examine some of the tools that make this possible. 

Wearable Devices

Defined as electronic devices that can be worn on the body to collect, monitor, and analyze health data, wearable technology is gaining popularity in the rehab world. These devices work by sending and receiving data over the internet, allowing patients to take greater control of their health and their medical team to monitor them throughout treatment. 

Some examples of wearable technology include: 

• Smart watches. These devices combine a smart phone’s features with a wrist watch’s conventional elements. Patients could use them to count steps, monitor their workouts, play media, communicate with others, and more.
• Sensor technology. These discreet instruments can be placed in numerous locations to evaluate a patient’s coordination, range of motion, speed, and more. 
• Fitness trackers. They can monitor one’s heart rate, track sleeping patterns, surveil distance traveled, calories burned, and more. 

Research suggests that wearable devices used to monitor physical activity will increase more than fivefold per half-decade.

Gamification

Healthcare gamification incorporates the structural elements of video games into healthcare therapies, encouraging participants and rewarding them for their progress. This motivates patients to be active participants in their own healthcare, which is linked to reduced costs, more efficient use of resources, better treatment adherence, and improved patient-provider satisfaction. 

Virtual and Augmented Reality 

Virtual reality (VR) is gaining traction in the rehabilitation space, with its ability to immerse patients in a new environment and activate their senses. Participants can enter various computer-generated, three-dimensional virtual settings to complete walking exercises and other activities. Simply putting on a VR headset can place patients into a realistic simulated environment that makes them excited to complete their treatment plan. 

Augmented reality (AR) is another type of extended reality technology. It overlays digital data onto the real world, enhancing the environment—think Pokemon Go. Some patients may prefer this modality because it only offers a partial digital world… and it may be harder to get disoriented. 

Rehabilitation Robotics Technology 

Patients with more significant physical impairments may benefit from robotic devices, which are designed to increase mobility, restore motor functions, and enhance a patient’s  quality of life. Robotics technology provides precise, repeatable, and adaptable rehab treatments in ways that traditional therapy can’t replicate. These instruments can be fine-tuned and controlled in a manner customized to the patient’s needs, allowing for a more efficient individual recovery. 

These tools also offer sensory and motor feedback, allowing rehab therapy professionals to tailor a patient’s treatment plan even further. Imagine patients achieving their goals more quickly while decreasing costs!

Telerehabilitation

Teleconsultations are particularly helpful for patients in rural environments. They allow practitioners to interact with their patients and not miss a beat with treatment. This may involve video consultations, sending exercise videos via the patient portal, and giving advice using a secure messaging platform. Teleconsultations are particularly appealing to patients seeking self-management strategies who are not huge fans of hands-on rehabilitation. Implementing this model could bring in another stream of income for rehabilitation clinics as well. 

New AI Technology in Healthcare

A common misconception is that AI will replace the need for human therapists, but this is far from true. AI is a powerful resource capable of improving and magnifying the support rehab therapists provide. Here’s a few ways AI might make a difference for rehab therapy practices. 

The Electronic Health Record

Electronic health records (EHRs) contain extensive data, making them a great source of information for AI. When EHR-based AI models learn about the signs and symptoms of a condition or disease, along with its patterns, tasks like patient screening can be at least partially automated. For example, AI has been used to identify people at high risk of falling and predict who may  be at risk of developing pressure injuries within the first 24 hours of admission to an intensive care unit. 

That type of screening could take hours if done manually by a human being. However, by streamlining the process with the use of AI as well as a practitioner, clinicians can intervene early on and implement prevention strategies. 

EHR-based AI, and other AI-based tools that may integrate with your EHR, can also help with prognosis. Rehabilitation professionals could use AI to support short- and long-term care planning, goal-setting, and selecting suitable patients for different therapies.

Wearable Sensors

Wearable devices paired with AI introduce novel ways of assessing disease-specific indicators of impairment and function. As one study points out, activity recognition algorithms from wearable devices can also reveal exercise adherence or changes in daily activities following discharge from an inpatient rehab facility. The authors even shared an example of how prognostic models show promise in predicting future walking ability in acute stroke rehabilitation. 

Other AI Applications

AI can also be used to analyze and interpret medical imaging. It’s been integrated alongside EHR-data to confirm disease severity, improve diagnostic accuracy, and determine the potential for recovery. 

Rehab professionals could even use AI to quantify functionality and impairment in video analysis. A study noted that pose estimation is becoming more mainstream for things like gait analysis, especially among populations with Parkinson’s disease and stroke. 

Overall, this transformative technology will change how our healthcare industry operates, and not adapting to it could hinder business sustainability. 

Implementing New Technology in Healthcare

As you can see, technology is improving by leaps and bounds in the medical sector. However, as beneficial as it might be, you won’t be able to see its potential in your organization if you don’t have buy-in. So, what can you do to get others on board? 

Push vs. Pull Management Styles

When it comes to technological innovation, it’s essential to find a balance between push and pull. 

With the push management style, you simply give directions and push for outcomes. An example might be that you’ve observed helpful features of a new technology’s features, understand the problems it could solve, and decide to integrate it without gaining buy-in. Instead, you tell your staff that this is the new tool the organization will use and the deadline it will be incorporated, and then hold your managers accountable for getting their teams on board. 

The pull management style, however, is more about inspiring and motivating others to get involved. In this case, if you spot a new rehab tech device, you might tell your employees about it, explain how it could make their jobs easier, and then request their feedback. You’d likely ask them what they believe the pros and cons are, and the best way to build this technology into their workflows. Demonstrating that you care about their perspective may inspire them to embrace the change. 

Ideally, you should combine high push and high pull management styles to achieve buy-in, as this increases confidence and satisfaction among direct reports. 

Address Barriers to Implementation for Staff

Before you incorporate new healthcare technology, it’s crucial to identify the potential obstacles those in your clinic might face. In addition to pinpointing those barriers, you should also be prepared to suggest how your team can overcome them.

Some common hindrances can be: 

• Economic. Implementing new technology isn’t cheap. Be aware of the costs associated with purchasing devices and software, as well as their accompanying operational expenses. To achieve buy-in, communicate the potential return on investment (ROI). 
• Technical. Expect knowledge and skill gaps among employees regarding operating advanced systems. Assess what operational modifications will be needed to make implementation possible at your company and map out a plan to ensure its feasibility. 
• Organizational. Observe the current systems within your entity, and work with managers to decipher what new processes and procedures will be needed to make integration possible. Don’t forget to get the perspectives of front-line staff. 
• Human. This is considered the most substantial factor impeding change, so be sure to give it the attention it deserves. Understand that people may fear losing their job, be hesitant about the supposed improvements, or simply see these changes as problematic. Localized change management is critical, and should be considered well before development or sourcing begins. 

Don’t Overlook Patient Feedback 

It’s necessary that you get buy-in from your employees, but they aren’t the only stakeholders you need to worry about. You should also check in with your patients to see what they’re looking for—as they’re the ones keeping your doors open. 

Consider sending surveys and questionnaires to learn about patients’ wants and needs. In addition, pay attention to what patients say during sessions. Comments like, “I sure wish I could do this from home” or “transportation makes it a challenge to get to my appointments” can alert you to gaps that tools like telehealth could fill. 

New Technology in Healthcare Is Changing the Rehab Therapy Game

Healthcare businesses that lag behind in technology may struggle to compete in this ever-changing industry. It’s clear that digital health and AI tools can streamline workflows, reduce costs, and enhance the overall patient experience. However, these benefits are only achievable when you have buy-in from your workforce and a clear strategy for implementation.