Physiotec: the Leading Physiotherapy Exercise Software

About the Client

Physiotec is a Canadian company that specializes in the development of rehabilitation exercise instructions (photos, videos, and descriptions) for physiotherapists around the globe. The company has more than 75,000 exercises in over 20 specialties including speech, orthopedic, pediatrics, geriatric, aqua therapy, pilates, amputee, pelvic floor, conditioning, and more. There are even exercises for animals.

zA Home Exercise Program (HEP) is an integral part of rehabilitation programs for many diseases and injuries. But for an HEP to be successful, patients must know how to perform exercises correctly. As a result, therapists spend a lot of time explaining to each patient how to do each exercise. Our client came up with a great idea to make an electronic database for the creation and management of Home Exercise Programs (HEPs).

CHALLENGE

• When the client came to us, they needed to improve their software so that it would be possible to create HEPs and send them to patients.
• The challenge was that each medical case is unique and therapists need to be able to create a personalized program for each patient. HEPs need to be explicit and easy to follow so that patients can do them at home without professional supervision.
• In addition, both patients and therapists need a tracking mechanism that will allow the doctor to make sure the patient completes the exercises as prescribed.
• All of this would be time-consuming and ineffective without well-designed HEP software.

SOLUTION

We helped develop a system that allows physical therapists to easily create HEPs for each patient individually, send them in different formats, and track patients’ progress.

• Compiling HEPs from the database of exercises
• Sending programs to patients via email
• Printing programs in different formats
• Setting an expiration date for each online program
• Using HEP templates
• Adding videos and pictures
• Customizing instructions for exercises
• Integrating with Electronic Medical Records systems
• Creating and sending program instructions in the patient's language.

Physiotec already had a large database of exercises when they approached us. Our task was to optimize the search engine and add new features. Our accomplishments included:

Physiotec constantly updates and expands their exercise database. The team creates new exercises in suitable media formats and uploads them into the system.

Using the ‘Loader tool’ that we created, Admin can easily upload videos, add instructions and keywords, and translate instructions into different languages.

Here is an exercise creation screen:

Therapists can also create exercises on their own, or edit existing ones and save them as templates for themselves or share them within their clinic.

Previously, it was hard to find the necessary exercise among more than 75,000 videos. The search function was not adequate.

We improved the search mechanism with the help of Elasticsearch technology. It allowed us to link exercise criteria to a search request. Moreover, the search filters the results by user permissions to prevent unauthorized access.

The main search features that we introduced were:

• Search by keywords and phrases
• Search by synonyms
• Auto-suggestions and keyword highlighting
• Search by replacements
• Filtering by categories (for ex., Orthopedics)
• Filtering by criteria (users can specify their search by selecting ‘body part’, ‘movement’, ‘objective’, and ‘position’)
• Search by languages

Many clinics use Electronic Medical Records (EMR) or Electronic Healthcare Records (EHR). To ensure seamless operation, we integrated Physiotec with more than 25 EMR, EHR, and Clinic Management Software systems. The data exchange is performed via API.

Now, doctors can easily save exercise programs to patient profiles in their EMRs.

We added an opportunity to download HEPs in PDF or HTML formats. Therapists can choose from numerous ready-made templates or create their own. This saves precious time for doctors and it is convenient for patients.

To trace the patients’ progress and report results to the PT, we created interactive tracking sheets. For each exercise, patients can track the duration, difficulty, and pain levels.

The information is displayed in a report that can be accessed by both the therapist and patients.

BENEFITS FOR THE CLIENT

We were pleased to work with the Phisiotec team. As a result of our cooperation, they upgraded their software dramatically:

TECHNOLOGIES