What is TeleRehab/Virtual Physio?
“TeleRehab” encompasses a range of rehabilitation services that include evaluation, assessment, monitoring, prevention, intervention, supervision, education, consultation, and coaching. Appointments are online, similar to using Skype or FaceTime, but using software that is much more secure to keep your information safe.
What are the goals of the first appointment?
- Determine your goals and motivation for recovery!
- Listen to your story to gain a solid understanding of your issue and how it affects you
- Screen for potentially serious pathologies that may need urgent attention outside of physiotherapy
- Watch how you perform specific movements and get feedback about how you feel during these movements
- Create a working diagnosis about what’s going on
- Have a discussion together about whether or not we both feel TeleRehab would be appropriate for you
- Give you some tips, tricks, and exercises for home to self-treat and initiate recovery
What are the goals of the following appointment(s)?
- Check-in to see the status of your symptoms (better, same, or worse)
- Retest movements and get feedback about how you feel during these movements to gauge progress (or lack thereof)
- Make appropriate changes to your treatment plan
- Determine if any other interventions are required (i.e. in-person assessment or treatment) or if any medical tests are necessary
- Give you some more tips, tricks, and exercises to build upon the previous session to progress recovery
What are some more specifics?
These online video appointments will be focused on…
- Assessing through observation, movement quality, range of motion, and symptoms with each
- Determining appropriate exercises (strength, balance…)
- Progression of these exercises and daily functional tasks
- Self-mobilization (using belts, foam rollers, towels, balls…)
- Pain education
- Return to sport, work, and activity education
- Symptom monitoring education (such as signs of swelling, redness, etc), and/or
- Self-management recommendations and strategies
Does TeleRehab/Virtual Physio actually work?!
You betcha! The research has been telling us that TeleRehab is equivalent to, and in some cases better than, in-person care. To date, there is strong evidence supporting its use in hip and knee replacements, as well as for assessing many shoulder, elbow, lumbar, and lower extremity musculoskeletal conditions. With regards to treatment outcomes such as pain, function, quality of life, and body region specific measures, benefits are similar to face-to-face sessions, with client satisfaction often being reported as high.
How do I connect?
We use Jane to conduct these virtual appointments, which is the same software we use to chart, schedule appointments, send out appointment reminders, make payments, and direct bill private insurers.
If you need help connecting to your telerehab/virtual appointment, check out our Jane online appointments help page.
We will use Doxy.me as a back-up, as well as the good old telephone if we happen to run into some major technical issues.
Top tips for connecting to your TeleRehab/Virtual appointment
- Ensure you are in a safe environment and that you have another person at your home/nearby or easily reached via phone
- Give yourself extra time to connect (we recommend 10-15 minutes). Virtual visits can have a bit of a learning curve due to the technology that is required.
- Expect technical difficulties. Whether it is a bad internet connection, audio problems, technical glitches or other issue, there are a number of things that can go wrong in a virtual visit. Don’t get frustrated as we will problem solve any issues together.
- If you are having audio issues, using headphones can be a great quick fix. Feedback/echoing sounds are annoying (one speaker is picking up sound from another, which then repeats), so headphones/earbuds can solve this most of the time. We’ll use headphones too if needed!
