Rehab at First Contact

Rehab at First Contact

Early intervention of exercise rehabilitation is vital with accurate diagnosis and reassurance. In the UK, physiotherapy is seen as the best profession to deliver this, but other healthcare professionals have had great results using the Rehab Guru exercise prescription tool. The article highlights such cases to empower the industry.

Rehab at First Contact

Early intervention of exercise rehabilitation is vital with accurate diagnosis and reassurance. In the UK, physiotherapy is seen as the best profession to deliver this, but other healthcare professionals have had great results using the Rehab Guru exercise prescription tool. The article highlights such cases to empower the industry.

No items found.

REHAB AT FIRST CONTACT

With the epi­dem­ic of lifestyle health prob­lems pri­ma­ry care pro­fes­sion­als are now see­ing care­ful con­sid­er­a­tion is required in how peo­ple are advised at these first meet­ings. GP’s (fam­i­ly doc­tors), nurs­es, phys­io­ther­a­pists, chi­ro­prac­tors, osteopaths and the emer­gency depart­ment, are see­ing mil­lions of peo­ple all over the coun­try. For those who require phys­io­ther­a­py, this first meet­ing presents an oppor­tu­ni­ty for prac­ti­tion­ers to con­struc­tive­ly chal­lenge a patient’s lifestyle choic­es and intro­duce a rehab pro­gramme imme­di­ate­ly. With pri­ma­ry care pro­fes­sion­als requir­ing the widest scope of health­care knowl­edge, it is dif­fi­cult some­times to know where to start when offer­ing advice on exercise.

“With pri­ma­ry care pro­fes­sion­als requir­ing the widest scope of health­care knowl­edge, it is dif­fi­cult some­times to know where to start when offer­ing advice on exercise.”
Rehab guru injured ankle full colour

WORKING CLOSELY WITH EXPERTS

Rehab Guru works close­ly with doc­tors in pri­ma­ry care and phys­io­ther­a­pists in emer­gency depart­ments to find how out­comes and work­ing prac­tices can be trans­formed with our exer­cise apps. The pub­lic is hap­py engag­ing with exer­cise apps con­fi­dent­ly which has cre­at­ed a feel­ing of expec­ta­tion. So find­ing a health­care pro­fes­sion­al who has engaged with tech­nol­o­gy and meets the patient’s expec­ta­tions of high qual­i­ty health­care can cre­ate an imme­di­ate rap­port and con­nec­tion. Alter­na­tive­ly, a ther­a­pist who is still using paper will con­front a patient’s expec­ta­tions in a neg­a­tive man­ner and the rep­u­ta­tion of the ther­a­pist will reflect this. Using such apps could also be the extra encour­age­ment a patient needs who may oth­er­wise feel ner­vous about exercising.

“Using such apps could also be the extra encour­age­ment a patient needs who may oth­er­wise feel ner­vous about exercising.”

It is com­mon for peo­ple to expe­ri­ence pain occa­sion­al­ly and this will often ease over a few days or weeks. They do not always need a refer­ral to a phys­i­cal ther­a­pist, sur­geon or con­sul­tant. The right advice will see these peo­ple main­tain or increase their activ­i­ty lev­els; per­form some use­ful exer­cis­es (to ease their pain and aid their recov­ery), while feel­ing more con­fi­dent about their health. The wrong advice will see these indi­vid­u­als lose fit­ness as they rest, devel­op poor beliefs about activ­i­ty and pain, while their bod­ies become stiff and weak.

Physio treating patient

Rehab Guru cur­rent­ly allows phys­i­cal ther­a­pists to send rehab pro­grammes to peo­ple who have attend­ed the emer­gency depart­ment (ED). Like­ly caus­es for their vis­it could include ankle sprains, back pain, whiplash or shoul­der dis­lo­ca­tions. For those lucky enough to see a phys­io­ther­a­pist, after being triaged, their treat­ment starts imme­di­ate­ly — which is essen­tial for a person’s recov­ery. Alter­na­tive­ly, patients who are sent to a doc­tor are more often than not sent away from the ED with crutch­es and med­ica­tion after an ankle sprain or a sling and anal­ge­sia after a shoul­der injury. There is an oppor­tu­ni­ty here to do much better.

Rehab guru consultant

The feed­back from the doc­tors we work with in remote areas is com­pelling. The GP’s assess the patient, and with our app, are able to advise on a pro­gramme of exer­cis­es to help the patient straight away. As a result, they are see­ing con­sid­er­able improve­ment in symp­toms. Rehab Guru exer­cise pro­grammes have been spe­cial­ly cre­at­ed by experts in their field, and the pro­grammes are help­ing peo­ple who may have to endure months of wait­ing before they see a phys­i­cal ther­a­pist. So imag­ine what out­comes these peo­ple can achieve by the time they see the phys­i­cal ther­a­pist, and the speed at which they recov­er. The GP’s who utilise Rehab Guru are so impressed with the results they are encour­ag­ing all their col­leagues to do the same. A pow­er­ful change is occurring.

Rehab guru three looking at xray

This change in prac­tice is hap­pen­ing for many types of health­care pro­fes­sion­als all over the world. Chi­ro­prac­tors, osteopaths, GP’s, phys­i­cal ther­a­pists and nurs­es all pos­sess the pow­er to affect change now rather than lat­er. At Rehab Guru we appre­ci­ate all the coura­geous health pro­fes­sion­als who are tak­ing this step with us. Our goal is sim­ple: to ensure as many pri­ma­ry care pro­fes­sion­als join our move­ment to ensure peo­ple get bet­ter quicker.

David Barrow

Rehab Guru Co-Founder

David is a Physiotherapist who has been involved in Professional Sport, battlefield trauma, chronic pain and the NHS. He continues to work clinically alongside his development role in Rehab Guru. David is passionate about Health tech to transform outcomes for patients