Home-Based Telerehabilitation Platform to Augment Orthopedic Rehabilitation

Project Overview

Telehealth offers a potential solution to rural populations in Mississippi, struggling with limited access to healthcare. However, providing telehealth services in rural communities presents many unique challenges. Decreased internet access and poor cellular service can make virtual connectivity with patients difficult.

The use of telerehabilitation in the treatment of patients with musculoskeletal issues has increased significantly since 2020. WizeCare is a telehealth rehabilitation application that can be utilized to interact with patients remotely, measure joint range of motion (ROM) via motion detection technology, and create patient specific home exercise programs with notifications to encourage patient adherence. Telehealth rehabilitation applications, such as WizeCare, have shown promising results with potential to improve patient outcomes when used as an add-on to traditional in-person physical therapy services. However, as previously mentioned, there are many barriers to the successful implementation of physical therapy telehealth services particularly in rural settings.

We aim to enroll 20 ACL surgical candidates and provide physical therapist services to them with the assistance of a telehealth application (WizeCare) until the patient is seen by a physical therapist in-person. As part of this feasibility study, we also aim to enroll up to 10 healthcare providers to assess provider satisfaction with the use of the application and telehealth services. This proposal is an expansion of the previously funded Center for Excellence project Innovative Digital Model for Home Based Stroke and Cardiac Rehabilitation. The aims associated with the year 4 carryover project were previously delayed due to unexpected barriers with regulatory compliance and IRB approval. However, we recently obtained IRB approval and when the proposed year 5 project begins, we anticipate having 5 patients and all healthcare providers enrolled.