High-Tech for Stroke Rehab is Here to Stay

Survey data illustrate how physical therapists are increasingly catching a technology wave toward better outcomes

Compiled by Physical Therapy Products

It makes good sense that when stroke care is tailored to a patient’s specific needs, that person can expect a better outcome. It also makes sense that better outcomes for stroke underwrite a greater level of satisfaction among patients. But how do physical therapists feel about the relationship between outcomes and the technologies they use to achieve them? And, what if clinic managers could know which stroke care technologies have piqued their therapists’ interest, and which ones they’d like to have access to at their own workplaces?

Those questions are largely unexamined by the literature, so Physical Therapy Products launched a survey to learn about the stroke rehab technologies physical therapists have been using and would like to use in the future. We also learned what technologies physical therapists are testing for themselves and factors that keep some of these devices out of reach. Following are results of that survey, which suggest technologies that facilitate mass repetition, gather objective measures of gait, and protect therapists and patients against therapy-related falls are here to stay. PTP