St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust embraces e-health through partnership with Physitrack

Physitrack's patient app. (Photo: Business Wire)

LONDON--()--Patients at London’s St George’s University Hospitals who are recovering from illness or injury can now receive rehabilitation guidance at home through an innovative ‘virtual’ physiotherapy app.

The app enables clinicians to provide custom built, video-demonstrated exercise programmes as well as monitor and intervene in their patient’s real-time progress and extract comprehensive data for study. It was developed by Brighton-based mobile healthcare provider Physitrack and works on smart phones, tablets, and desktops.

Rob Elek, Director of Strategy at St George’s University Hospitals said: “We’re delighted that working with Physitrack on their app will help us deliver important healthcare in a new and exciting way.”

He added: “The app gives patients on the road to recovery immediate support without the need for numerous hospital visits. This will save our patients inconvenience and could help reduce the associated staff-time costs for the trust.

“It is important that we continue to provide highly specialised person-to-person physiotherapy to those who need it, but this new app will allow us to revolutionise the more routine aspects of rehabilitation, and ultimately help the patient recover in the comfort our their own home.

“As well as providing support and guidance, the app collects data and thereby builds up an invaluable bank of evidence on clinical outcomes.”

Physitrack’s video-based rehab programmes will be integrated into day-to-day treatment by St George’s physiotherapists and other clinicians starting this fall. It will replace traditional, illustrated rehab exercise instructions with clear, easy to understand instruction videos, which are followed by patients on their mobile phone or tablet.

Clinicians can monitor their patient’s adherence, progress, and pain-levels throughout the exercises whilst also gaining an understanding of the clinical effectiveness and patient engagement with these app-delivered treatments.

“Physitrack is delighted to have been adopted by St George’s”, said Nathan Skwortsow, Co-Founder and CTO of Physitrack. “The take up of the Physitrack platform by an NHS trust with such a leading role in both clinical care and academic research further advances the use e-healthcare, and we are confident it will prove of real value to St George’s and its patients.

“We are also honoured to have St George’s show its commitment to Physitrack by becoming a shareholder in the company and cooperating in studies to gauge the effectiveness of the exercises and compliance with self-management. “

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

Physitrack. A global leader in rehab e-health.

Currently in use by thousands of clinicians in Australia, the Netherlands, Germany, the US and the UK, Physitrack Pro was developed with the assistance of the Department of Physiotherapy at the University of Melbourne and leading healthcare practitioners in the UK. The platform contains more than 1500 purpose-filmed exercise videos, supervised in filming by experienced rehabilitation professionals. The videos can be quickly and easily compiled into rehab and wellness programmes by physiotherapists and other clinicians. Patients receive daily prompts to complete their programme, recording their adherence, pain levels and any comments on completion of each exercise. Physitrack Pro then charts this feedback for the clinician in real time, creating a continuous link patient-clinician link throughout rehab.

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Contacts

St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Louise Halfpenny
Head of Communications
T: 0208 266 6127
louise.halfpenny@stgeorges.nhs.uk
or
Physitrack Limited
Nathan Skwortsow
CTO & co-founder
press@physitrack.com
T: 0208 133 9325

Release Summary

Major London NHS trust embraces e-Health through shareholding in app provider Physitrack - bold initiative to improve patient care and reduce in-patient cost with the help of technology.

Contacts

St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Louise Halfpenny
Head of Communications
T: 0208 266 6127
louise.halfpenny@stgeorges.nhs.uk
or
Physitrack Limited
Nathan Skwortsow
CTO & co-founder
press@physitrack.com
T: 0208 133 9325