Net Health announces that its rehabilitation outcomes management system, FOTO Patient Outcomes, has been used in the 127th clinical research study published in a peer-reviewed medical and rehabilitation journal. 

Since its founding in 1992, FOTO has been putting patient-reported outcomes data to work for the benefit of the physical therapy profession. Over this time, the FOTO database, providing patient-reported outcomes data and predictive analytics, has been regularly utilized by researchers from top U.S. and international academic universities as well as industrial leaders in healthcare research.

These research efforts have led to improvements in, and an enhanced understanding of, rehabilitation therapy and have been an essential part of FOTO’s effort to support the future of healthcare and reimbursement, as well as to drive accountability and meaningful change throughout physical therapy.

“From the very beginning, we’ve tried to encourage researchers to use our data for the betterment of the physical therapy profession,” said Al Amato, who, with Ben Johnston, co-founded FOTO. “We have been in the forefront from the very beginning in supporting outcomes research not only in our internal staff, but anyone else who has a valid research question.”

FOTO: Forefront of Data-Based Benchmarking and Research

Today, FOTO continues to be the leading innovator in rehabilitation therapy patient outcomes and analytics, providing front-line clinicians with accurate patient benchmarking against their professional peers nationwide using both modern science (e.g., FOTO, PROMIS) and traditional measures (e.g., Oswestry, DASH).

Since its founding, more than 35 million patient assessments have been completed using FOTO measures, with assessments currently performed by more than 24,000 clinicians in 13,000-plus clinics across all 50 U.S. states.

This vast compilation of data, documented during everyday practice, makes it possible for FOTO to provide rehab therapists with real-time information on treatment effectiveness and efficiency, enabling them to manage quality of care metrics, engage in alternative pay-for-performance reimbursement methods, track patient satisfaction, and market their successes.

On a broader scale, this data – which powers FOTO’s machine learning predictive analytics models – also allows FOTO to support the future of healthcare as a resource for researchers, insurers, policy makers, and care providers. Studies using FOTO data – again, this includes 127 studies published in peer-reviewed journals, including eight so far in 2022 – have spotlighted the overall effectiveness of rehab therapy care models while continuing to drive meaningful change throughout the rehab therapy profession.

Clinical and measurement science research examining FOTO’s robust-national database has supported a wide variety of topics such as:

  • Associations between telerehabilitation and outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic;
  • Efficient screening for fear of movement in outpatient settings;
  • The impact of physical therapy residency or fellowship education on clinical outcomes for patients with musculoskeletal conditions;
  • Associations between interim patient-reported outcome measures and functional status at discharge from rehabilitation for non-specific lumbar impairments; and
  • Implications of practice setting on clinical outcomes and efficiency of care in the delivery of physical therapy services.

[Source(s): Net Health Systems Inc, PR Newswire]