TELEMEDICINE ON THE RISE

More persons are utilising tele-medicine services in order to get advice from their doctors.

President of the Barbados Physical Therapy Association, Dr. Gerry Warner, outlined that due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a number of practitioners have switched to telemedicine or tele-rehab to be able to give necessary guidance, and expressed expectations that this type of doctor/house visit will be here to stay for some time.

In the case of physiotherapy, he explained therapists will either use a doll or demonstrate to patients what actions to take, and make corrections to the patients’ movements by watching online.

“In addition, there are a number of programmes that monitor you even more closely and allows them to check blood pressure and sugar levels online. So virtual or tele-rehab has come to [the] fore since last year and has continued and probably will continue forward as it allows for increased safety, especially for those who are extremely high risk.

“Many people, including our elderly that we have been worried about, have gotten used to the technology and have learnt how to use it appropriately because of family members or repeated practice and are doing very well. It is a good way to check in on patients and give medical advice if there are any concerns,” the physiotherapist stressed, while speaking on a recent “Covid Queries” episode.

Highlighting the various types of physical therapy those recovering from acute symptoms of Covid-19 had to undergo, Warner urged those who had utilised the services of a physiotherapist to continue to do the exercises they had been instructed to do at home, especially if they had been hospitalised for some time.

“Walking is an exercise, deep breathing techniques is another exercise, upper limb exercises to increase strength, and there is another exercise to maintain adequate blood flow in your legs…which is very important if you are lying down for long periods of time, as blood tends to pool in those big veins and the risk of blood clots is increased, so we also want to prevent these things from happening. So exercises should continue while out of the hospital setting and should really continue as a lifelong experience.

“When you come through the hands of a physiotherapist, you really want when you leave the office that the things you have learnt from them, you continue to do to prevent yourself from becoming re-injured or also to improve your rate of recovery,” Warner stated.