A WA designed hand-held computer application is saving time for physiotherapists and enhancing communication with clients.
Using a Windows operating system, Physiotherapy Internat-ional’s Spinal Management software allows a physiotherapist to record a client’s details and spinal assessment, choose from treatment options and write a quick summary, all of which is stored with the time and date and able to be downloaded to a larger system.
Sold in South Africa and Canada and under trial by LifeCare physiotherapists, the touch-screen system frees up consultation time, saving the therapist from handwriting notes while inter-viewing the client and providing quick access to progress notes.
LifeCare managing director Denis Boyd says the system’s most obvious benefits to a physiotherapy practice are the saving on storage space for client notes, the opportunity for the therapist to maintain greater eye contact with a client during an interview and the immediate list of options presented to the therapist.
Another big plus is that physiotherapists do not have to keep going back to a desk with a computer or carry bulky client notes with them.
“They can carry this with them, when they’re in and out of cubicles and up and down the hospital wards,” Mr Boyd says.
The spinal assessment menus allow for both subjective and objective descriptions of the extent and type of a client’s pain, while the treatment component provides advice and warnings as well a list of standard options.
Mr Boyd believes the treatment option component is particularly valuable in that physiotherapists and their clients can benefit from the knowledge of the experienced physiotherapists who have compiled the program and its upgrades.
The Spinal Management system also enables quick and comparative research analysis for a variety of injuries and treatments.
