How to Introduce the PT-Helper App to an Older Patient
Published On April 17, 2018
Dr. Roger Wong, a world-renowned geriatrics doctor recommends using technology to provide greater independence and the ability for the older individual to stay at home. Follow 3 easy steps to add the PT-Helper mobile app to your patient's smartphone or tablet to set them up with their prescribed exercises.
A Pre-hab PT Home Exercise Program Prior to Knee Replacement From Peerwell.co
Published On April 10, 2018
Pre-hab exercises prior to knee replacement surgery can help patients achieve improved outcomes. We have curated 10 exercises from Peerwell into a Home Exercise Program on PT-Helper CONNECT. The HEP program can synchronized with the PT-Helper mobile app with HEP code C936967.
Reminder: Please consult your physician before engaging in any physical activity and stop if you experience pain or discomfort.
An Easy Solution for Your Patient Who "Forgets" to Complete Their HEP
Published On April 3, 2018
The PT-Helper mobile app provides your patients with 3 daily reminders to notify your patients on their smartphones that it's time to do their exercises. Multiple reminders can be used to break apart a large exercise program into smaller programs that can fit into the patient's day.
Subscribe to the PT-Helper Blog here so you don’t miss these helpful compilations and BONUS, you’ll receive Our Secret Guide, unveiling the secrets your patients are keeping from you.
Tuesday, April 24, 2018
Tuesday, April 17, 2018
How to Introduce the PT-Helper App to an Older Patient
While talking with different therapists, we often hear the concern that their older patients are not technology savvy.
Interestingly enough, Dr. Roger Wong, a world-renowned geriatrics doctor in the TEDx video below recommends using technology to provide greater independence and the ability for the older individual to stay at home. Technology can increase safety and increase socialization. He recommends giving seniors a smartphone to help keep track of them with GPS and to improve socialization with Facetime and other similar apps.
If you have an older patient, find out if they have a smartphone. If they don’t have a smartphone, ask if they have a tablet at home and to bring it with them the next time they come in for an appointment. Tablets are often easier to use for older patients with the larger screen size making it easier to see.
You can help your patient install the PT-Helper mobile app onto their smartphone or tablet.
You can then enter in their unique HEP code from our exercise prescription service, CONNECT, into the app for them.
You can also set up their 3 daily reminders to alert them that they need to do their exercises.
Once you’ve added their HEP code, you can show your patient how to open the PT-Helper mobile app, select your company logo, select the first exercise and press Start. Once they have pressed start, it’s easy for them to follow along with the visual and audible guides to complete their home exercises.
Examples of the mobile app screenshots below include the logo from BreakOut Advisors & Rehabilitation.
Start your Free 30-day Trial of the PT-Helper CONNECT tool for physical therapists and other therapy providers, so you too may create and prescribe Home Exercise Programs like the one shown above.
Interestingly enough, Dr. Roger Wong, a world-renowned geriatrics doctor in the TEDx video below recommends using technology to provide greater independence and the ability for the older individual to stay at home. Technology can increase safety and increase socialization. He recommends giving seniors a smartphone to help keep track of them with GPS and to improve socialization with Facetime and other similar apps.
If you have an older patient, find out if they have a smartphone. If they don’t have a smartphone, ask if they have a tablet at home and to bring it with them the next time they come in for an appointment. Tablets are often easier to use for older patients with the larger screen size making it easier to see.
You can help your patient install the PT-Helper mobile app onto their smartphone or tablet.
You can then enter in their unique HEP code from our exercise prescription service, CONNECT, into the app for them.
You can also set up their 3 daily reminders to alert them that they need to do their exercises.
Once you’ve added their HEP code, you can show your patient how to open the PT-Helper mobile app, select your company logo, select the first exercise and press Start. Once they have pressed start, it’s easy for them to follow along with the visual and audible guides to complete their home exercises.
Examples of the mobile app screenshots below include the logo from BreakOut Advisors & Rehabilitation.
Start your Free 30-day Trial of the PT-Helper CONNECT tool for physical therapists and other therapy providers, so you too may create and prescribe Home Exercise Programs like the one shown above.
Tuesday, April 10, 2018
A Pre-hab PT Home Exercise Program prior to knee replacement from Peerwell.co
In 2010, there were approximately 700,000 knee replacements (arthoplasty) in the United States. The number of knee replacement surgeries is expected to grow to 3.48 million procedures by 2030 which is a reflection of the expected growth in the population over 45 years of age.
In the article “Pre-hab for Surgery” on the Arthritis Foundation’s website, “patients who had participated in water- and land-based strength training, and aerobic and flexibility exercises for six weeks prior to their surgeries reduced their odds of needing inpatient rehabilitation by 73 percent”.
However, the BMJ Open article “Does preoperative rehabilitation for patients planning to undergo joint replacement surgery improve outcomes? A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials” questions the benefits of pre-hab and comes to the conclusion that “Existing evidence suggests that prehabilitation may slightly improve early postoperative pain and function among patients undergoing joint replacement; however, effects remain too small and short-term to be considered clinically-important, and did not affect key outcomes of interest”.
From the patient’s perspective, pre-hab helps set up the habits and intent of exercise that is critical during post-surgery rehabilitation. Especially for those individuals who have been suffering severe pain and have not been exercising.
Peerwell.co has an article “10 PREHAB EXERCISES TO PREPARE YOU FOR JOINT REPLACEMENT SURGERY” with a set of exercises that we’ve curated into a Home Exercise Program (HEP) using the PT-Helper CONNECT platform and presented on the PT-Helper mobile app.
These sample exercises can be quickly downloaded into the PT-Helper mobile app using
You can also find these exercises in the Knee & Hip category in the PT-Helper mobile app to add to your Favorites which allows you to customize each exercise’s repetitions, sets, and hold time.
Reminder: Please consult your physician before engaging in any physical activity and stop if you experience pain or discomfort.
SOME OF THE EXERCISES INCLUDE:
Start your Free 30-day Trial of the PT-Helper CONNECT tool for physical therapists and other therapy providers, so you too may create and prescribe Home Exercise Programs like the one shown above.
Click here to view Knee & Hip exercises currently available within the PT-Helper Exercise Library.
In the article “Pre-hab for Surgery” on the Arthritis Foundation’s website, “patients who had participated in water- and land-based strength training, and aerobic and flexibility exercises for six weeks prior to their surgeries reduced their odds of needing inpatient rehabilitation by 73 percent”.
However, the BMJ Open article “Does preoperative rehabilitation for patients planning to undergo joint replacement surgery improve outcomes? A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials” questions the benefits of pre-hab and comes to the conclusion that “Existing evidence suggests that prehabilitation may slightly improve early postoperative pain and function among patients undergoing joint replacement; however, effects remain too small and short-term to be considered clinically-important, and did not affect key outcomes of interest”.
From the patient’s perspective, pre-hab helps set up the habits and intent of exercise that is critical during post-surgery rehabilitation. Especially for those individuals who have been suffering severe pain and have not been exercising.
Peerwell.co has an article “10 PREHAB EXERCISES TO PREPARE YOU FOR JOINT REPLACEMENT SURGERY” with a set of exercises that we’ve curated into a Home Exercise Program (HEP) using the PT-Helper CONNECT platform and presented on the PT-Helper mobile app.
These sample exercises can be quickly downloaded into the PT-Helper mobile app using
HEP code: C936967
You can also find these exercises in the Knee & Hip category in the PT-Helper mobile app to add to your Favorites which allows you to customize each exercise’s repetitions, sets, and hold time.
Reminder: Please consult your physician before engaging in any physical activity and stop if you experience pain or discomfort.
SOME OF THE EXERCISES INCLUDE:
- Ankle Pumps While sitting or lying down, pump your ankles up and down.
- Quad Sets Lie on your back with one knee bent and the other leg as straight as possible. Place a rolled towel under your affected ankle. Tighten your thigh muscle on the straight leg and push the back of your knee down towards the ground. Hold. Relax. Repeat.
- Gluteal Sets While lying on your back with your legs straight, squeeze your buttocks together. Hold. Relax. Repeat.
- Heel Slides Lie on your back with one leg bent, foot flat on the floor, while other leg is straight. Keep your heel on the floor and slide your heel towards your buttocks bending at the knee. You will feel your hamstrings working and a stretch in the knee. Pause, slowly lower to starting position keeping heel on floor.
Start your Free 30-day Trial of the PT-Helper CONNECT tool for physical therapists and other therapy providers, so you too may create and prescribe Home Exercise Programs like the one shown above.
Click here to view Knee & Hip exercises currently available within the PT-Helper Exercise Library.
Tuesday, April 3, 2018
An Easy Solution for Your Patient Who "Forgets" to Complete Their HEP
One of the most frequent excuses that a physical therapist will hear from their patient about why they aren’t doing their exercises is, “I forgot.” For many people in today’s hectic society, it is not surprising that their busy schedules distracts them from establishing a new habit to do their prescribed exercises.
To help patients remember to do their home exercises, the PT-Helper mobile app provides three (3) daily exercise reminders.
Select the Settings (hamburger)
symbol at the top right of the screen and then set the time for each reminder as required.
The 3 daily reminders can be used to notify your patient on their smartphone that it’s time to remember to do their exercises.
We’ve had the opportunity to talk with many different therapists and have discovered that some therapists will not prescribe more than 5 exercises to their patients as they feel that having more exercises will discourage their patients from doing their exercises. Keeping the quantity of exercises low gives the patient a sense of control and the perceived effort of completing a small number of exercises doesn’t become a hurdle to the patient.
With this thought process in mind, the therapist can easily create multiple ‘treatment plans’ in CONNECT for the patient and have different (or the same) exercises in the patient’s morning, mid-day, and evening exercise plan. Each ‘treatment plan’ will have their own unique home exercise program (HEP) code and the patient’s exercise completion schedule of each plan can be monitored separately.
The flexibility of PT-Helper’s web-based exercise prescription service, CONNECT, and the mobile app can help your patient overcome their hurdles of “I forgot” as well as spreading out their prescribed exercises into short sessions of exercises that can easily be accommodated in a busy day.
We know you put your patients first, help them complete their prescribed home exercises with PT-Helper.
Start your Free 30-day Trial of the PT-Helper CONNECT exercise prescription tool today!
To help patients remember to do their home exercises, the PT-Helper mobile app provides three (3) daily exercise reminders.
Select the Settings (hamburger)
symbol at the top right of the screen and then set the time for each reminder as required.
The 3 daily reminders can be used to notify your patient on their smartphone that it’s time to remember to do their exercises.
We’ve had the opportunity to talk with many different therapists and have discovered that some therapists will not prescribe more than 5 exercises to their patients as they feel that having more exercises will discourage their patients from doing their exercises. Keeping the quantity of exercises low gives the patient a sense of control and the perceived effort of completing a small number of exercises doesn’t become a hurdle to the patient.
With this thought process in mind, the therapist can easily create multiple ‘treatment plans’ in CONNECT for the patient and have different (or the same) exercises in the patient’s morning, mid-day, and evening exercise plan. Each ‘treatment plan’ will have their own unique home exercise program (HEP) code and the patient’s exercise completion schedule of each plan can be monitored separately.
The flexibility of PT-Helper’s web-based exercise prescription service, CONNECT, and the mobile app can help your patient overcome their hurdles of “I forgot” as well as spreading out their prescribed exercises into short sessions of exercises that can easily be accommodated in a busy day.
We know you put your patients first, help them complete their prescribed home exercises with PT-Helper.
Start your Free 30-day Trial of the PT-Helper CONNECT exercise prescription tool today!
Tuesday, March 27, 2018
PT-Helper's March Blog Posts for Physical Therapists
How to Introduce the PT-Helper Tools to Your Team of Physical Therapists
Published on March 20, 2018
Creating a personalized Home Exercise Program (HEP) for your patient on PT-Helper CONNECT can be completed in 3 easy steps. Synchronizing their HEP with the PT-Helper mobile app on their phone will help patients overcome common hurdles that stop them from doing their home exercises.
A PT Home Exercise Program for Golfer's Elbow Injury from the Summit Medical Group
Published on March 13, 2018
We’ve curated nine (9) exercises shared by the Summit Medical Group into a Home Exercise Program on PT-Helper CONNECT. The HEP program can be synchronized with the PT-Helper mobile app with HEP code 4D629988.
Reminder: Please consult your physician before engaging in any physical activity and stop if you experience pain or discomfort.
How To Add Your Own Exercises to PT-Helper
Published on March 6, 2018
Create your own new exercises on our web-based exercise prescription service, CONNECT. These exercises are private to your group and not shared with other CONNECT users. New exercises can also be created on our PT-Helper mobile app. You can also add videos and pictures to prescribed or favorite exercises on the mobile app.
Subscribe to the PT-Helper Blog here so you don’t miss these helpful compilations and BONUS, you’ll receive Our Secret Guide, unveiling the secrets your patients are keeping from you.
Published on March 20, 2018
Creating a personalized Home Exercise Program (HEP) for your patient on PT-Helper CONNECT can be completed in 3 easy steps. Synchronizing their HEP with the PT-Helper mobile app on their phone will help patients overcome common hurdles that stop them from doing their home exercises.
A PT Home Exercise Program for Golfer's Elbow Injury from the Summit Medical Group
Published on March 13, 2018
We’ve curated nine (9) exercises shared by the Summit Medical Group into a Home Exercise Program on PT-Helper CONNECT. The HEP program can be synchronized with the PT-Helper mobile app with HEP code 4D629988.
Reminder: Please consult your physician before engaging in any physical activity and stop if you experience pain or discomfort.
How To Add Your Own Exercises to PT-Helper
Published on March 6, 2018
Create your own new exercises on our web-based exercise prescription service, CONNECT. These exercises are private to your group and not shared with other CONNECT users. New exercises can also be created on our PT-Helper mobile app. You can also add videos and pictures to prescribed or favorite exercises on the mobile app.
Subscribe to the PT-Helper Blog here so you don’t miss these helpful compilations and BONUS, you’ll receive Our Secret Guide, unveiling the secrets your patients are keeping from you.
Tuesday, March 20, 2018
How to Introduce the PT-Helper Tools to Your Team of Physical Therapists
The benefits of the PT-Helper mobile app to help your patients complete their home exercises (improving compliance and resulting in better outcomes) will help motivate your staff to try out PT-Helper’s web-based exercise prescription solution, CONNECT.
A short example of the mobile app in use is shown below.
Benefits of PT-Helper mobile app for the patient are:
- No more exercise papers to deal with
- Always have their prescribed exercises with them
- Up to 3 daily reminders to do their exercises
- Counts hold times, repetitions and sets
- Walks them through their complete home exercise program (HEP)
- With a free 30-day trial, there is no financial risk to trying out PT-Helper CONNECT.
The simple-to-use interface of CONNECT makes it easy to learn how to add patients and add exercises to their personalized treatment plan. Using their preferred browser, your staff can login and quickly start adding patients and exercises.
Simply selecting 
, entering the patient’s first and last name will create the patient’s profile.
, entering the patient’s first and last name will create the patient’s profile.
Then select 
to enter the treating therapist, location and injury.
to enter the treating therapist, location and injury.Once these fields have been completed, select
to view our exercise database and to select exercises to add to the home exercise plan.
CONNECT allows the therapist to change the parameters of each exercise such as hold times, repetitions and sets. It also allows the therapist to add unique comments to each exercise selected to customize the instructions for each patient.
CONNECT also allows therapists to modify existing exercises or add their own exercises to the database with unique pictures and instructions. These exercises are private to the therapist’s group and not shared with other therapists. No more need to hand-draw pictures or repeated re-write instructions.
In addition, protocols can be created simplifying the process of finding and adding exercises to treatment plans.
An added benefit to the therapist is an exercise history log for each patient, which records when the patient completes an exercise on the mobile app.
Tuesday, March 13, 2018
A PT Home Exercise Program for Golfer's Elbow Injury from the Summit Medical Group
Despite the cold temperatures and nor’easter storms lashing the eastern seaboard, spring and warmer weather will be here soon providing us the opportunity to enjoy outdoor activities. Unfortunately, a dormant winter season followed by
robust activity often leads to injuries. A common warm weather injury is
Golfer’s Elbow.
A suggested physical therapy treatment plan is shared by
Summit Medical Group.
We have curated nine exercises from their
Medial Epicondylitis Rehabilitation Exercises
sheet into a Home Exercise Program (HEP) using the PT-Helper CONNECT platform and presented on the PT-Helper mobile app.
These sample exercises can be quickly downloaded into the PT-Helper mobile app using
HEP code: 4D629988
You can also find these exercises in the Wrist and Elbow category in the PT-Helper mobile app to add to your Favorites which allows you to customize each exercise’s repetitions, sets, and hold time.
Reminder: Please consult your physician before engaging in any physical activity and stop if you experience pain or discomfort.
EXERCISES INCLUDED:
- Wrist Flexion/Extension:
- Wrist Extension Stretch:
- Wrist Flexion Stretch:
- Forearm Pronation/Supination:
- Eccentric Wrist Flexion:
- Eccentric Wrist Extension:
- Ball Grip Strengthening:
- Forearm Pronation/Supination Resisted:
- Bicep Curl:
Bend your wrist forward as far as you can and hold. Bend your wrist backward as far as you can and hold. Repeat.
Keeping elbow straight, palm faces down and use other hand to grasp the back of hand. Slowly allow wrist to bend, pull back of hand down until stretch is felt in forearm. Hold. Relax to starting position.
Keeping elbow straight, grasp palm side of hand and slowly bend your wrist backward until a stretch is felt on underside of forearm. Hold. Relax to starting position.
Extend your hand palm up and slowly rotate your hand onto a palm down position until a stretch is felt. Hold. Slowly rotate your hand onto a palm up position until a stretch is felt. Hold, then repeat.
Hold a weight in the hand of your injured side with your palm up. Use your other hand to bend your wrist up. Release your injured hand and use just your injured hand to lower the weight slowly back to the starting position. Repeat.
Hold a weight in the hand of your injured side with your palm facing down. Use your other hand to bend your wrist up. Release your injured hand and use just your injured hand to lower the weight slowly back to the starting position. Repeat.
Hold a soft rubber ball in your affected hand. Squeeze the ball and hold. Briefly relax your hand. Repeat.
With your forearm supported on a table and your palm down, grasp an object and gently rotate your palm up as far as possible. Then gently rotate to palm down as far as possible.
Stand in good posture with arm straight, palm forward, holding a weight or pulling on a exercise band secured to the floor. Bend elbow curling hand up towards shoulder. Pause then slowly lower to starting position. Keep elbow fixed at your side during the exercise. Your therapist may have you alternate arms.
GOLFER’S EXERCISE DEMO, AS VIEWED ON THE PT-HELPER MOBILE APP
Start your Free 30-day Trial of the PT-Helper CONNECT
tool for physical therapists and other therapy providers, so you too may create and prescribe Home Exercise Programs like the one shown above.
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