Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust and Braun Medical have turned to digital tools to innovative the Orthopaedic Pathway.
With elective surgery on hold during the COVID-19 pandemic, the company said “In order to restart elective surgery whilst maintaining the safety of these patients, it is necessary to update the standard orthopaedic pathway to reduce time spent in hospital, and to allow patients to recover in the comfort of their own home.”
By introducing a range of motion sensors and an app, patients can take more control of their own recovery and rehabilitation. It provides patients with a platform for performing pre-habilitation and rehabilitation exercises, tracking progress and logging pain.
The innovative pathway supports same day discharge post-surgery and through increased involvement in their own recovery, patients are empowered to carry out flexion and extension exercises and in turn, accelerate their rehabilitation.
Graham Walsh, Chief Clinical Information Officer, Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust has worked closely with B. Braun on the Orthopaedic Pathway over the past 12 months.
He said “Patient wearable technology was something that was of great interest to us, we saw it as an enabler to get patients home on the same day, and also to improve patient satisfaction. What we discovered was that although digital technology is often seen as something that distances the patient from healthcare [as they are able to return home], we found that actually the wearables brought the patient in and they felt increasingly part of their journey.”
“They were able to communicate with the physios which we found invaluable, the patients were able to monitor how their progress was doing once they were discharged, which is something quite novel and something that we hadn’t seen before. All those things meant that the patient felt closer to the treatment.”
