5 Ways Occupational Therapy Robotics is Revolutionizing Stroke Patient Success
The Rehabilitation Therapy Robotics industry has exploded in the last 10 years, and it is at no pace to stop. Typically used in cases of traumatic brain injury, strokes, and hemiplegia, these devices can be especially powerful in rehabilitating patients, tracking their metrics, and providing individualized recovery plans tailored to each patient's needs. Here’s 5 reasons your clinic should have a Therapy Robotic Device.
1.Measuring patient success
Keeping track of patient progress is a primary role of therapists in rehab clinics, but can often be time-consuming and difficult to measure perfectly.
Robotics make this faster and easier through:
Benchmarking tests
Precision measurement
Track progress over time
Creates graphics and presents data
Using these methods therapists can easily educate patients about their specific disease. AND robotics can gives therapists more time to strategize a treatment plan.
2. Patient enjoyment
Patient enjoyment is an especially important factor to the amount that a patient will continue training and complete it most effectively. Thus, many robotic therapies have built into their therapy platform which keep patients engaged, interested, and ready to learn.
3. Incremental Assistive Rehabilitation
Incremental Assistive Rehabilitation is almost impossible to conduct by hand. Whether by a patient or by a physician, assisting a patient's paralyzed limb in movement is an especially variable process. Barrett Medical’s BURT, for example, can assist a limb in moving to its target anywhere between 0% and 100% assistance. This way, a patient can gradually receive less help as they recover, and the device can perfectly measure the support provided.
4. Injury Prevention
Preventing injury is another benefit of these therapy robots – even though a large robot may seem dangerous simply due to its size and power, these machines are hardwired and coded to prevent any unwanted movements. Robots like the BURT can also prevent therapist injury, as they decrease the amount of time needed for therapists to support a paralyzed arm. Leaning over a table to support an arm is potentially dangerous when repeated many times over a day/week/month, and can often result in serious amounts of time out of the office for an OT. Robots like the BURT eliminate this risk by supporting the limb entirely within the machine.
5. Time spent with the patient
Time spent with a patient is significantly increased when using Robotic therapy approaches, because the set up time for an activity is completely removed. While a therapist might normally have to switch between multiple machines, weights, and various supplies – setting each of them up before and between patient appointments – the robot does all of this on its own. This leaves more time for the therapist to work directly with the patient and help improve their condition.
Check out the BURT website to learn more about Barrett’s newest medical therapy device! Not only is its set up time under 20 seconds, but it has newly updated games every 6 months, along with performance benchmarking and personalized training plans!
Written by Maxwell Harrington