A little more about Online Physiotherapy
Online physiotherapy isn’t just a COVID-19 thing. Its been around for ages and emerged around the birth of teleconferencing (late 1990’s). Physiotherapists used grainy screened desktops or industrial sized laptops and barked instructions at their patients on a time delayed system, ones typically associated with early space exploration missions
The early 2000’s saw the dawn of skype and a significant improvement in the ability for physios to communicate with their patients from a remote setting. Online physiotherapy sessions became more common practice and this method of appointment appealed to a certain demographic… ones in remote geographical settings, ones with limited mobility and those who’d simply like to have an appointment in their pj’s. The arrival of smartphones saw a further boom in virtual physio and other medical sessions and virtual physiotherapists were much more accessible. With the arrival of new technology, quality and effectiveness of remote physiotherapy thrived
As such, patients generally appeared more accepting of using virtual methods to communicate. Subsequently, online physiotherapy flourished and PhysioHub was born.
PhysioHub research team 2020.
Around the mid 2000’s physiotherapy changed too. Research and trends shifted significantly away from passive hands-on treatment and outdated electrotherapy methods. Exercise based physiotherapy was at the forefront of the musculoskeletal physiotherapy world, supported with a plethora of evidence. This modern thinking of physiotherapy and rehabilitation suited the remote physiotherapy world. Assessment and exercise based rehabilitation sessions could as easily be conducted at home virtually as in a clinic setting.
With adversity comes opportunity and Online Physiotherapy boomed in the first lockdown of 2020. Most Physiotherapists were unable to work in clinic for obvious reasons and tried their hands at online physiotherapy. Like a herd of nightclub revellers in search of an all-night eating establishment, online physio’s scrambled to establish virtual clinics. The public became much more confident using online platforms for communications. Friday night ‘zoom’ and ‘houseparty’ quizzes were the new night out. Through necessity, elderly relatives who were often isolated and unable to see family members became familiar with using similar technologies. As such, patients generally appeared more accepting of using virtual methods to communicate.
Subsequently, online physiotherapy flourished and PhysioHub was born. Due to the effectiveness, accessibility and convenience of the service, we are very confident that quality online physiotherapy has the potential to long outlive COVID-19 and unlike this pandemic, we are hoping will be around for years to come.
So, Who Accesses Physiohub?
At Physiohub, we are a 100% virtual physiotherapy clinic, meaning all our services are conducted online. This means we are not limited with geographical restrictions in who can access our services. Most of our patients are based in the UK, but we are also open to people from all over the World.
Preferably, English speaking patients however. (unless you anticipate your assessment questions to include ‘where is the station?’ in timid French and ‘2 large beers please’ in a monotone diffident Spanish accent).
We accept referrals for all types of Musculoskeletal (MSK) disorders. Ranging from lower back pain, neck pain, knee pain, shoulder pain etc. We receive online referrals for newly acquired acute disorders or chronic, longer lasting pains. Unfortunately, during Covid 19, we have witnessed what the French would call a “mise en abyme” … a pandemic within a pandemic! This is related to the marked increase in posture related neck, shoulder and back pain. This appears to be correlated with an increase in people working from home and increased periods sat in ergonomically inefficient positions. As such, we felt it would be incredibly worthwhile to launch our online DSE service where we can assess the ergonomics of your home setup with a view to preventing such issues (www.myphysiohub.co.uk/services).
As well as our your typical MSK disorders, online post operative rehabilitation is something Physiohub caters for.We have conducted online assessments and rehabilitation sessions for people following a variety of upper limb and lower limb surgeries. Similar to in a clinic setting, we strive to guide you through your whole rehabilitation journey. From initial assessment where you may be crutch/brace/sling bound to end stage rehabilitation such as multi-direction running or forceful overhead throwing. We cater for all levels of ability and ages. Referrals for older patients undergoing online post operative rehabilitation for a total hip replacement are as commonplace as referrals for online post operative ACL reconstruction of an elite young athlete. Through your rehabilitation journey, as you improve and achieve certain milestones we will progress you logically through your exercises until you reach your end target.
At Physiohub, we are not restricted with small clinic rooms. We have conducted online rehabilitation sessions in work-based gyms, spacious gardens, outdoor fields, bedrooms and athletics tracks to name a few. We’re hopeful this is more convenient for you, but also more effective too. We accept online physiotherapy referrals from a variety of sources. These include Self funding patients, those with Private Medical Insurance* (PMI), Occupational Health and Medicolegal referrals.
*for those PMI patients, we strongly recommend you check with your insurer or ask us, to see if we are covered under your policy.
A few extras…
At Physiohub, we have completed bespoke assessment videos to effortlessly guide you through your assessment process. John is the absolute star of these videos and gives an Oscar worthy performance in expertly demonstrating certain movements for you to follow. Ben, the unsung hero behind the lens doesn’t cause Ridley Scott to lose sleep. With such grace and guile, John elegantly guides you through a series of movements for you to try and reproduce. We will observe you reproducing these movements and this assists our diagnosis and helps formulate our subsequent problem list. These physiotherapy assessment videos allow for a certain level of consistency, validity and reliability and we will share these videos with you during your assessment.
Following your remote physio assessment, we will thoroughly discuss findings, your diagnosis, problem list and subsequent treatment plan. We will prescribe you a series of exercises and email you your exercise program via our exercise prescription partner Telehab (link to their site). You will then be able to access your prescribed rehab exercises on your phone, tablet, computer etc. Each exercise comes with a clear video, explanation, and required repetitions. Furthermore, you will be able to record each time you have completed your prescribed program. After each online physio session or when appropriate, we will progress your rehab exercises accordingly and send the updated list to you.
I hope Physiohub’s first blog was informative and gave you a bit more of an insight into the world of Online Physiotherapy. For any questions, please feel free to email us on info@myphysiohub.co.uk.
Physiohub is an online physiotherapy company. We offer a 100% virtual service providing remote physiotherapy assessments, online physiotherapy treatment and rehabilitation sessions and online DSE assessments. To learn more about the services we provide, see our services page below.