apps Archives | WebPT

April 22, 2013
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Quick Tips for Improving Work Efficiency in Your Rehab Therapy Clinic

7 tips for improving work efficiencyAs you’ve probably noticed, we’ve dedicated a sizeable portion of this month’s blog space to helping you and your clinic conserve resources and become more environmentally conscious. But let’s not forget about the most important resource of all—your time! You might assume that you need a major systematic overhaul to improve work efficiency in your clinic. Not so. In this case, small investments pay big dividends. Here are some quick tips to help you get the most out of every minute:

1. Establish a process. Once you’ve fine-tuned your routine, educate staff and patients about what you expect from them. This is especially helpful for repeat clients; once a patient learns the drill, he or she will move through it quickly on subsequent visits.

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April 16, 2013
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The Truth About Paper: Recycling Isn’t Enough

ways to reduce paper use in your PT practiceBy this point, you know the importance of recycling—why “going green” isn’t only good for the environment but good for your clinic. But there’s more to it than simply putting out a blue bin (although that certainly helps).  In order to really make an impact, we have to start much sooner—we have to pay attention to our consumption. The less we consume (use), the better it is for all of us—our world, our children, and our children’s children.

While that goes for everything—less gas, less plastic, less water, less electricity—one of the easiest ways to start conserving is cutting down on paper. 

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April 10, 2013
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Mobile, Lightweight, and Oh-So-Cool: iPad Use in the OT Clinic

iPad use in the clinic

We’ve all seen the commercials: the catchy music paired with a montage of all the awesome things you can do with an iPad. The iPad—and Apple, in general—is all about the “wow,” the cool factor. So why wouldn’t rehab therapists use it in their clinic? We sat down with two occupational therapy clinics and asked them to share their experiences using iPads in their practice. 

Nick Roselli, OTR/L, CHT, of Nick Roselli Occupational Therapy in New York initially purchased laptops for his multiclinic practice. However, when he lost internet connectivity one day, Nick decided to use his iPad (with 3G internet connection) for that day’s patient visits and documentation. “I saw it was very user-friendly, and I could use it on the go as I visited my other clinics,” said Nick. In the case with Dynamic Rehab in Arizona, Tania Shearon, OTR/L, CHT, brought in her own iPad to use within the clinic, knowing that it would expedite her EMR documentation. “The iPad works awesome with my daily notes…much quicker,” Tania said. 

In general, Tania says the iPad is portable, fast, and easy. Nick listed similar qualities when speaking about the iPad in his clinics, emphasizing the user-friendly aspect and the ability to create quick notes. While Nick admits he’d rather use his laptop, especially for notes loading greater amounts of data, he says the iPad is just so much more mobile. The zoom feature on iPads is also a plus, too.

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July 23, 2012
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mHealth Strives for Mainstream

In a recent post, mHealth Insight explained that we’re more likely as consumers to drop the “health” in mHealth rather than the “mobile,” because mobile cannibalizes all things pocket-sized and digital. Anything plus mobile eventually just equals mobile. For example, camera phones and music phones are both now just phones. So, mHealth will soon just be mobile, too. Folks won’t look up from their giant touchscreen phones and say they’re “engaging with the Healthcare system;” they’ll instead say “oh, I’m just using my phone.”

But when will mHealth be that intrinsically mobile? Let’s look at the healthcare side first. According to Mobile Business Briefing, Vodafone, “one of the strongest operator proponents of mobile healthcare technology,” says that first healthcare must be accessible on a global scale. They’ve identified five key areas driving the digital health sector:

  1. Remote monitoring
  2. Mobile flexible working
  3. Access to medicine
  4. Clinical research
  5. Marketing and engagement
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July 5, 2012
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Health 2.0 Monitoring Devices, Part II: Tools for a Healthy Lifestyle or an Obsession?

We all want to lead a healthy lifestyle but can too much technology be problematic? This past Tuesday, Erica and I covered 12 personal health monitoring devices for the health 2.0 lifestyle. In today’s post, let’s talk about real user experience: the good, the bad, and the gimmicky.

FitBit

In an article posted on AllThingsD.com, Andy Smith, CEO of IAC-owned DailyBurn, told reporter Lauren Goode that today’s fitness tracking devices border on gimmicks: “I feel like these are not quite a gimmick, but are close to it…You get people to spend $100 to $150 bucks on something that’s just a glorified accelerometer—which, by the way, you have in your phone, too.”

Smith’s company, the Daily Burn (once upon a time known as Gyminee), is a fitness-data-tracking company that pivoted to focus primarily on fitness content because data tracking just wasn’t all that effective.

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