Smart phone and tablet technology can help your patients successfully complete their home exercise program, speeding up their recovery and improving your clinical outcomes. We’re fortunate to live in a time when constantly evolving technology helps to make our lives easier, but sometimes it’s evolving so quickly we don’t even realize what is available. A quick Google search can produce a plentitude of physical therapy apps to choose from — those you can use in your clinical practice, and those you can recommend to your patients for use during their home exercise.
The following four apps top our list as some of the most useful for patients’ “homework:”
- Shoulder Decide, Spine Decide or Knee Decide (for Apple — free). Since your time is limited with your patients, you may not be able to touch on all terminology they’ll need to understand their condition. Or, they may need a refresh on everything you talk with them about during an appointment. For shoulder, spine or knee conditions, there’s the Decide family of apps. Patients can learn about common conditions related to these regions of the body, including basic terminology, motion and structure.
- PT Pal (for Apple — $9.99, or Android — free). If you’ve ever wanted to assist patients when they’re not under your watchful eye, you now have the PT Pal app. With it, you can record videos of exercise movements your patients can refer to after they leave your clinic. The app also alerts patients when it’s time to do their exercises, similar to an “idle alert” on a fitness device.
- PTGenie (Apple — $79.99). This valuable app for use with iPad guides patients through therapy exercises at your clinic or at home. With the simple touch of the screen, they can view exercises for help understanding motions.
- Physioadvisor (for Apple — $2.99, or Android — $3.67). This app is designed to help patients complete therapy exercises on their own. Patients can scroll through a list of exercises, with an explanation and video of how to perform the exercise. It also allows the user to set an exercise reminder alarm.
What’s your favorite Home Physical Therapy Exercise App?
If you’ve found a home physical therapy exercise app that’s free, or that you think every physical therapist should know about, please share it in the comments section below. We’d love to add to our list. Thanks!
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