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Yesenia Velez-Figueroa

ENC 1102-OM31

4-15-19

How Can Technology Assist Patients After Physical Therapy?

All my life I’ve played any type of sport you can think of. I’ve always found it so

interesting how injuries happen and how by just going to physical therapy you get fixed. My

first encounter with a physical therapist was not too long ago. Unfortunately, I sprained my ankle

and had to get therapy for it. While I was getting therapy and my doctor would talk about

everything we were going to be working on, I was just so fascinated. That’s when I caught an

interested in physical therapy. During my junior year in high school three students from my

school got involved in a car accident, two of them were some of my closest friends;

unfortunately, one of my friends passed away. My other friend, the only survivor was airlifted to

the hospital, but he suffers some major injuries and left him paralyzed from the waist down.

When he finally came back to school, he and I would talk and show me videos of what he does

in his therapy session how much he loves his physical therapist.

Being a physical therapist means being able to help patients reduce pain and improve or

restore mobility. Most of what physical therapist communicate with their patients and then they

start with exercises and stretches. A lot of the patients that come to a physical therapist can be

either athletes or elderly people, these are totally two different types of people knowing this you

may think that they use different tools to communicate with each type of patients. A lot of people

go to doctors’ appointments, hospitals and clinics. Most of the time when they leave your

appointments they give you a paper with the information about your visit, every doctor’s office

makes it different. My research will analyze the types of different resource that physical therapist
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gives their patients after a visit or an appointment. I will be evaluating three different resources

that physical therapist gives to their patients, which are; videos, images, and handouts. Physical

Therapy sessions come with a lot of information that you may not always remember every single

thing you suppose to do after your therapy session

Videos

One resource physical therapist give to their patient after a session is a video to watch after

their session for them to use at home while working on their exercises. One website I found very

helpful was “MoveFoward” this site is all about physical therapy it can help you in so many

different ways. One thing that is very helpful is that they have a specific tab for videos, they have

more than 50 videos for literally any type of pain you can think of. Every video is different, the

videos may consist of tips for preventing pain, for improving and for treating pain. During the

videos they have a physical therapist with a patient with some sort of pain. For example, the “back

pain tips” video consist of ways of preventing that pain, in the video the physical therapist shows

you what stretches you should do if you are dealing with back pains. These videos are very

explanatory and simple to comprehend. They also have a YouTube channel “Move FowrdPT”

with many more videos. In their YouTube channel they made a different playlist for the audience

to see and make it better to search which category they need. I also found (cyber PT) which is

another helpful website with many videos, although some may find this website old looking. This

website is very simple and broad, it has a list from 1-60 all you have to do is choose which one

you want to watch and it’ll redirect you to it. Although not all of them have videos, but they also

provide a handout for you.

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1Figure 1 An example video

Images

Images can convey different meanings in them, they also can express something easier

than in writing. When you see a picture, it’s very easy to understand it and even explain to

someone else. Many Physical therapists use images to show their patients, their exercises or

stretches, this makes it easy to understand and not forget. One of the websites some physical

therapist may recommend is “whyiexcercise” this site shows you a couple of stretching exercises

once you choose the one you want, it will show you step by step with a picture of what you have

to do and a small description on the left side of each picture. These images appear very helpful

because of how simple they are. They also have a “Pinterest” page with more pictures of the

exercise/stretches. Another website is “Movement for life” this also helpful with images,

1
Retrieve from youtobe.com on April 12, 2019
https://www.youtube.com/user/MoveForwardPT/videos
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although it’s not the same concept as the past website. This website is more for lower back pain

relief exercises/stretches, it shows you a different picture of different exercises with a description

of what to do, they don’t exactly show you step by step in picture which is kind of hard to

understand. But it’s pretty straight forward, with what you need to do.

Figure 2 An example image2

Handouts

Every doctor gives handouts to their patients on a daily basis, all doctors are going to

give you information on what you have and what you can do to fix it. Giving this information a

lot of patients rely on handouts, some physical therapist gives specific handouts on what their

patients’ needs or have. For example, “Kaiser Permanente” provides anyone with different

handouts depending on what their problem is. These handouts are very specific and provides you

2
Retrieve from WhyIexercise.com on April 12, 2019
https://www.whyiexercise.com/back-stretching-exercises.html
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with a background, also gives you tips on early treatment, and they tell you what you should

wear any braces if needed. Their website is very easy to follow, they also have videos and

physical therapist that you can consult during the week. Another website I found helpful is

“Vanderbilt” they are also similar to the website before but this one includes picture too, to

demonstrate the exercises/stretches. Although, this specific website doesn’t have many different

choices it’s still very helpful.

Figure 3 An example of handout

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Analysis

By carefully analyzing every perspective video can be very beneficial for everyone and is

very modern and popular. Although it maybe be not so helpful for elderly people or people that

don’t have access to computers and the internet because of their lack of technology skills with

computers or phones. Watching videos is a good option this is because of how they can teach

you faster than looking at a picture or reading a handout of what you need to do. Images it’s one

that everyone could use no matter the age or lack of technology, viewing images as it’s very easy

to understand and also, they have a lot of many different one you can look up. Although they

have some that are just pictures and some that are pictures with a description on the side or

bottom of what to do. Drawing on my research, I argue that a combination of images and

handouts would be the best choices if you were looking for some help. This is because it doesn’t

matter the age or lack of technology you can get these anywhere and anyone can understand it.

On the other hand, handouts are the last choice because it maybe be hard for people to actually

visualize what they need to do and it’s better. To have an example to make sure you’re doing it

right and not get hurt. It may have more information on what you need to do, but it may be a

little bit harder to actually do it.

Conclusion

3
Retrieve from Kaiserpermanente.com on April 12, 2019
https://thrive.kaiserpermanente.org/care-near-you/northern-
california/santarosa/departments/physical-occupational-speech-hand-therapy/physical-therapy-
patient-handouts-of-common-conditions/
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In conclusion during my research of looking for the best way to look for a

therapist to give the right source to their patients after their session, I can conclude that having

images and handouts it’s the best choice if you ever have to do physical therapy at home. From

all my findings this was the best option because no matter if you have the right technology or the

age anyone can get it and understand it. Because of the lack of technology in poor places or

elderly’s not knowing how to work them, the videos weren’t a good option. Also, having only, a

handout wasn’t really good either because of the lack of images.

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Works Cited

“Pain Is Personal.” MoveForward, www.moveforwardpt.com/Default.aspx.

MoveForwardPT. “MoveForwardPT.” YouTube, YouTube,

www.youtube.com/user/MoveForwardPT.

Resource, CyberPT - Physical Therapy. “01. Isometric Ankle Strengthening (Group of

Four Exercises).” Physical Therapy Exercise Videos - Cyber PT,

www.cyberpt.com/cptvidlist.asp.

“Physical Therapy Exercises to Rebuild Strength and Improve

Mobility.” Whyiexercise.com, www.whyiexercise.com/physical-therapy-exercises.html.

“Physical Therapy For Lower Back Pain - 10 Best Exercises For Relief.” Physical

Therapy For Lower Back Pain - 10 Best Exercises For Relief | Movement for Life,

www.movementforlife.com/blog/physical-therapy-for-lower-back.php.