Billions of Years Ago, in 2020, COVID Changed Healthcare & We Launched Our Telerehab
By: Nataliya Zlotnikov, MSc, HBSc

Billions of Years Ago, in 2020, COVID-19 Forced us to Rethink Healthcare Delivery 

That is how long it feels like we have been dealing with COVID-19.

But I'll have you know, that contrary to popular belief, we have only been dealing with COVID-19—for 763, 764, 765 years, I mean days and counting—since 31 December 2019, when the first COVID case was reported in Wuhan, China (WHO, 2022).

In 2020, We Were There 

Shortly after, in April of 2020, we began to offer Telerehab on Embodia and published our first Telerehab blog telling you about it. 

This quote from our April blog really puts things into perspective and shows us how much things have changed since then:

Growing Body of Research

Since then, there has been a growing body of research on the subject of telerehabilitation.

Altogether, there are now 1,731 articles on telerehabilitation listed in PubMed, and 49% of those articles (841 articles) were published in 2020-2022 alone. 

In this flourishing field, numerous editorials, research papers, and meta-analyses have found telerehabilitation to be as effective (Suso-Martí et al., 2021), and at times more effective (Quigley et al., 2020) than face-to-face rehabilitation approaches. 

However, prescribing patient exercises is a complex process and requires advanced therapeutic skills to increase adherence and effectiveness such as patient education and communication.

For this reason, adapting telerehabilitation to the usual practice of physical therapy has to be achieved through a change of paradigm to ensure an effective patient-based telerehabilitation (Suso-Martí et al., 2021)."

Embodia Is Helping Create That Paradigm Shift

Embodia strives to help create that paradigm shift in physiotherapy.

We are committed to building new solutions for an antiquated healthcare system and to helping physiotherapists and rehab pros globally redefine themselves and their expertise in a changing world.

We envision a not-too-distant day in which all rehab pros embody and deliver a hybrid model of care, putting patients in the driving seat of their recovery.

Research shows that access to the right information, at the right time, delivered in the right way, leads to an increase in a patient’s desire and ability to take a more active role in decision-making. Open and transparent communication and access to a patient’s own medical information is a key driver of patient empowerment.

This philosophy underpins every decision we make at Embodia.

Our user-friendly ecosystem is changing the way we deliver care, using technology to provide a seamless, holistic experience for both practitioners and patients through a biopsychosocial lens.

Our platform gives you access to all the tools you need to deliver virtual care the right way and provide empowering, effective, patient-based telerehabilitation. These tools include our telerehab platform, digital HEP, two-way messaging to increase communication, outcome measures and more. 

How to Incorporate Virtual Care Into Your Practice, the Right Way!

Take a look at how you can incorporate virtual care into your practice with Embodia's Telerehab feature.

If you have additional questions, we invite you to book a free 30-minute demo with Luka, our very approachable and knowledgeable Sales Manager, by following the yellow button below: 

Request a Free Demo! 

15 Benefits of Telerehab on Embodia

Here are a few of the benefits of Telerehab on Embodia:

Pandemics to Become More Likely 

Although COVID-19 may soon become endemic, the "COVID-19 era" will not soon end.

In 2021, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) published a research paper by Marani et al. The study used a newly assembled record of past outbreaks to estimate the intensity of those events and the yearly probability of them recurring (Duke Global Health Institute, 2021).

Currently, the probability of experiencing a pandemic in one’s lifetime is about 38%.

Marani et al. found that together with recent estimates of increasing rates of disease emergence from animal reservoirs associated with environmental change,

That's a probability of up to 76% of experiencing a pandemic in one’s lifetime!

Such data highlight the importance of early response; for our profession, telerehab is an essential part of this early response. The importance of telerehab will only grow in the coming years.

Not Everyone Wants the Same Thing, So We Tier

We understand that not everyone may want all the same services, so we don't make you pay for things you don't need.

To give our users a more tailored experience, we recently launched our tiered plans. Tiers 2 and 3 provide you with all the Telerehab features discussed in this blog. 

Get to know our tiers here:

Learn more about
Telerehab on Embodia

Refresh Yourself: Drink Water & Check-Out a Telerehab Course 

If you're new to telerehab or looking to grow your virtual care know-how, our telerehab online healthcare courses are a great place to start, click on the image below to check them out!

Telerehabilitation Resources for Physiotherapists

Here are some useful virtual care links for physiotherapists in Canada, bookmark this blog to have them handy:

Reading is Power

For a fresh perspective on telerehab, take a look at an excellent blog from PT resident Sukhbir Manku, Experiences of a New Grad - Part 2/3: Views on Telerehab, Continuing Education Courses, and the PCE delays. 

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Date written: 19 Jan 2022
Last updated: 2 Feb 2022