Current Trends in Rehabilitation

The rehab equipment industry has changed extremely in the last few years. Some tools have gained popularity, others are on the failure and the market is filled with new products designed to improve patient care and make Physical therapists’ lives easier.

Many of these changes have been driven by altering reimbursement structures as clinic directors have had to adjust their practices to stay profitable. Still, other new developments have more to do with aging patient populations, the convenience of better technologies and parallel changes in surgical practices.

1. Water-Based Therapy

Water therapy is on the rise, particularly among elderly people and osteoarthritis patients. Water provides both buoyancy and resistance, a combination that may benefit people whose joints are too repressed or painful for land-based, full range of motion exercises.

Specifically, aquatic exercise is beneficial for patients who suffer from both knee and hip osteoarthritis, and that it may help them transition to land-based exercise. In fact, water therapy has also been used in combination with traditional gait and balance training next traumatic brain injuries.

2. Wearables

The possible of wearable technology, including watches, wristbands, headbands and other sensor-equipped devices. Customer wearables already allow users to display vital signs and activity levels, and the same technology could soon be used to gather reliable data traditionally collected from subjective and objective exams. Ultimately, that data could be used to prescribe more current treatments and decrease healing times by monitoring fatigue.

3. Gamified Rehab

From education to wellness, gamification has taken numerous industries by storm. Gaming has also made its technique into the rehab clinic in the last few years, and more and more therapists are using devices.

Patients enjoy the task and audio-visual stimulation these games provide. Ultimately, games may prove to be outstanding rehab tools for a wide variety of conditions — not to mention a great way to generate buy-in from patients.

4. Rehab Robotics

Robotics have opened a whole new frontier for neurological rehabilitation. Practice makes perfect, after all, a robot might allow spinal cord patients to take ten times the number of steps they would accomplish in a traditional hour-long session.

5. Emphasis on Transitional Care

The Affordable Care Act continues to drive deviations in healthcare delivery. One of the most pressing issues for PTs and their patients’ physicians is the Readmissions Reduction Program, which aims to reduce re-injuries and needless follow-up appointments.

To achieve a significant decrease in readmissions, PTs will need to work closely with physicians, patients and other healthcare team members on education, discharge planning and protective care. For patients who need assistive devices and passive rehab equipment, PTs may also need to recommend on their purchase or rental.

6. Increased Use of Light Therapy

Light therapy has significant praise from patients and PTs over the past several years. The new body of research supporting the efficacy of low-level lasers (LLTs) and light-emitting diodes (LEDs) for a variety of applications. From wound care to sports injuries to neuro-rehabilitation, light therapy is an excellent device for therapists to use in combination with traditional techniques.