Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, telerehabilitation has become a major trend in physiotherapy. In some countries, rehab facilities had to close during strict lockdowns. Even though they have reopened, many patients still avoid face-to-face physiotherapy sessions due to the imminent risk of infection. While these fears are justifiable, especially in older patients, they lead to massive financial losses for physiotherapy facilities.

In this situation, remote physiotherapy is an excellent way to keep patients and therapists safe while still administering effective treatments and monitoring each patient’s progress.

Sadly, not all remote rehab software is created equal. Here’s what you should consider when choosing a telerehabilitation platform.

Patient data security and GDPR compliance

Any medical software collects a fair amount of personal information, ranging from patients’ names and addresses to sensitive medical records. This is why the healthcare industry has always been targeted by cybercriminals – and 2020 saw an unprecedented increase in cyberattacks on healthcare organizations.

What does this mean for you? Our CLO explains:

“Handling personal data and sensitive health data is as hard as handlig banking information. The requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation by European Commission (the GDPR) are very high in this case: legal grounds for processing, technical and organizational measures, several levels of encryption and other multiple security measures have to be fulfilled by the provider to be considered compliant. The price of mistakes here is higher than ever, as personal information of individuals is priceless. Responsible software providers know that and pay great attention to details – a highly qualified Data Protection Officer, permanent staff cybersecurity and data protection training, engagement of the most secure tools for physical and cyber protection of data storage and transmission, care of data protection agreements  – all parts of the long list of precautions to be done. Here at Raccoon.World we work daily with our external DPO – solid German company e-privacy GmbH, to be absolutely compliant to the GDPR highest standard and keep the data secured for the sake of our customers and our users.”

Olga Antoniuk, CLO of Raccoon.World

Variety of content for patients

Let’s be honest: people get bored easily. This means you can’t just offer your patients a single list of exercises and hope it keeps them motivated for months.

Prescribing a varied exercise program and tweaking it regularly is the most obvious solution. But at Raccoon.World, we went even further and decided to combine flexible exercise programs with video games and instructional videos.

Comprehensive analytics of patient progress

Both patients and therapists need to know if the prescribed treatments work well. Since subjective evaluations are… well, subjective, we recommend relying on data instead.

Tracking patients’ movements provides you with a wealth of data about their exercise habits and their progress. Patients have access to their data, too, so they can view their performance reports and see the progress they’ve made. Without progress tracking, measuring the success of a treatment plan would be impossible, especially in remote physical therapy.

Built-in communication with patients

Imagine this. You normally use a specific app for online consultations, but then you meet a new patient who has never used it. Instead, they want to use a program you’ve never heard of, so you might have to spend a few hours just learning a new piece of software.

Well, this is why we suggest opting for rehab software that includes video call functionality.

Raccoon.Recovery software for physical rehabilitation and devices to track movements during therapeutic exercises

User-friendly design of software

Physiotherapy is meant to help patients regain strength and mobility, not overwhelm them with complicated software. Especially for senior patients who didn’t grow up around computers, confusing software is a source of frustration.

We have spent several years refining every aspect of user experience for therapists and patients alike. Using our software requires no prior technical knowledge or experience with similar products – all the functions are easy to access. Here’s what one of our users had to say:

“I always get mildly anxious whenever I have to use a new app. After all, I got my first computer at the age of 50 so I don’t have this intuitive understanding of computer apps that young people have. But learning Raccoon.Recovery was a breeze – here’s proof that you can teach an old dog new tricks!”

Wojciech, 70.

Easiness of platform implementation

Before choosing physical therapy software, check if it runs on all popular software platforms and if it’s easy to configure from a technical point of view.

“If setting up a physical therapy app is going to take hours, patients and therapists alike will end up frustrated. This is why we aimed to make implementing our platform as easy as possible.”

Alex Radovichenko, CPO of Raccoon.World

Simply install our software and start it. That’s it – after logging in, you’re ready to start entering patient data and creating treatment plans.

Scalability and flexibility

Scalability is an essential feature of enterprise software. It means that the software can easily adapt to the demands of a growing business. No matter if you run a small private practice with just a few remote patients or a large facility with hundreds of staff and patient accounts – you should be able to use the same software with ease.

Solution pricing

Why pay for functions you don’t need? Before overpaying for a software bundle that’s going to be mostly unused, explore all the various payment plans and options and ask for a free trial.

Additionally, check if the pricing depends on the number of patient and therapist accounts. A small private practice and a large rehab facility shouldn’t be forced to pay the same price – at least this is the philosophy behind our pricing. We charge our clients based on the number of accounts that were active during the previous month.

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A free trial of Raccoon.Recovery Light is available for 14 days.

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Technical support

Look for a telerehab software provider that offers good technical support. Otherwise, you risk being unable to work for several days while you’re waiting for a tech support agent to deal with your problem.

Before you invest in a specific product, consider having a chat with their tech support. Are their answers genuine or just copied-and-pasted fragments of the FAQ section on the website? Do they try to overwhelm you with technical jargon? Do you feel you can trust them?

Educational resources and training

No one likes to be left alone with complicated new software and a 100-page manual. When choosing a telerehab program, ask if they offer training for new clients.

“As a PhD in psychology and a person that has 10+ years in working with businesses as a sales manager and customer success expert, I am pretty sure that hands-on training beats software manuals every time. For example, we at Racoon.World are ready to come to your facility and teach you everything you’d like to know about our software.”

Iryna Mykhailova, DACH Regional Manager at Raccoon.World

Checklist for choosing a telerehabilitation platform

All in one solution for remote physical therapy

Being a physical therapist or managing a rehab facility usually involves juggling a whole bunch of apps. One for video calls, another one for storing patient data, a third one for generating exercise programs and a fourth one for keeping track of patients’ progress. 

But why juggle a dozen apps if you can juggle, say, three or four? Look for multifunctional software that can do more than one thing. After all, the time spent copying and pasting information between apps could be used for treating patients, taking a coffee break or watching an occasional cat video on YouTube.