Top 5 Exercise Prescription Software
In the digital age, physiotherapy, osteopathy, chiropractic and sports therapy clinics are harnessing the power of technology, with healthcare practitioners keen to be more efficient. Exercise prescription software has become a must-have for all practitioners and clinics. But why is it so useful, and how is it reshaping the landscape for therapists and patient care? Let's delve into the world of exercise prescription software.
What is Exercise Prescription Software?
Exercise prescription software is a digital tool designed for healthcare professionals, personal trainers, physiotherapists, chiropractors, osteopaths, sports therapists, massage therapists, podiatrists and all healthcare professionals who prescribe exercises. It is also gaining popularity with personal trainers and other fitness experts. It allows these professionals to create, manage, and email/SMS custom exercise programs for their clients or patients. The software typically includes a database of exercises, each demonstrated with images or videos, and often accompanied with an exercise diary.
Key Features and Benefits:
Bespoke: Every individual has different needs, goals, and physical conditions. This software allows for the creation of tailored exercise routines based on these unique parameters, ensuring more effective and safer workouts. We know from research that bespoke individually-tailored plans are significantly more effective than generic ones.
Visual Demonstrations: With video and image demonstrations, patients can easily understand how to perform exercises correctly, reducing the risk of injuries and enhancing effectiveness. Audio can also be good for people with visual issues.
Progress Tracking: Healthcare therapists can monitor the progress of their patients, making necessary adjustments to the program as they advance or encounter challenges. Plans can easily be updated from week to week during the appointment.
Remote Accessibility: Especially relevant in our increasingly online world, many exercise prescription platforms are cloud-based, allowing clients to access their routines from anywhere – be it at home, a hotel gym, or a local park.
Educational Resources: Beyond just exercises, many platforms offer advice sheets and other supplementary information that can be useful to the patient, and also serve as educational to the therapist.
Our Top 5 Exercise Prescription Software
1. Rehab My Patient
For a clinic such as Surrey Physio, we need to operate at scale. Rehab My Patient allows us to add the 250 locations we provide physiotherapy in. This is invaluable for scaling and business transformation. Rehab My Patient is super-fast, intuitive, visually pleasing, functional and so easy to use that we don’t need to train our staff on it. We simply give them a login, and let them play with the site. This saves us time. Our clinicians absolutely love it, because it also saves them time. They can prescribe an exercise plan in under one minute (15-seconds if they use a template). In addition, there’s a useful tool that allows you to send WhatsApp to patients. TeleRehab is standard and free. However, the really big deal for Surrey Physio is the cost. Multi-clinic and clinic licences allow multiple practitioners and are super-cost effective. They integrate with around 5 EHRs and partner with PhysioPedia, the World’s largest physiotherapy website.
Go to www.rehabmypatient.com
2. Physio Tools
We have to add Physio Tools because this was the big daddy, the founder of exercise prescription software from Scandinavia, and the go-to for pretty much every physiotherapist prior to 2010. We used to use Physio Tools in 2008 and 2009, and back in the day it was run on a CD and exercises were all line-arts. Physio Tools developed significantly and remains as one of the biggest platforms out there, especially in the NHS. We give respect to the original.
Go to www.physiotools.com
3. PhysioTec
We’ve never used PhysioTec, but it’s one of the “big boys” operating at huge scale in Canada, US, and UK. PhysioTec has the largest database, although we’re told this does slow down the site a lot. PhysioTec integrates with a lot of software, including TM3, PPS, and about 35 others. They partner widely too. We feel this is likely to be a good software and worth trying.
Go to www.physiotec.ca
4. Exercise Prescriber
Again, we’ve never used Exercise Prescriber, but we know the founder Gary and the site is sound as a pound. Previously used throughout BMI hospitals, Exercise Prescriber is an effective tool that can be used to prescribe exercises and videos to patients. Exercise Prescriber integrated with TM2, Freehand and Preiori, and also partners with Copore-TTN. They are also ISO27001 giving them credibility with internet security. The site has been around for over 10 years so is well established.
Go to www.exerciseprescriber.com
5. There are lots more – if you want to list yours here, drop an email to tim at surreyphysio.co.uk
Implications for the Future:
The rise of exercise prescription software represents a positive move for physiotherapists and other allied healthcare practitioners as a tool to support (but not replace) therapists.
Data-Driven Decisions: With more data collected on client performance, professionals can make more informed decisions, optimizing exercise programs for faster and more sustainable results.
Broader Reach: Especially for physiotherapists and healthcare professionals, these platforms can enable the treatment of patients in remote areas or those who cannot frequently visit clinics.
Continual Innovation: As technology advances, we can expect more features like augmented reality workouts, AI-driven exercise modifications, and integration with virtual reality for immersive workout experiences, although will these really help our patients? Most of think this may be a step-too-far. But let’s see.
Conclusion:
Exercise prescription software is more than just a digital platform; it's a bridge between professionals and clients, enhancing communication, ensuring compliance, and optimising results. Whether you're a sole practitioner looking to enhance your service offerings or an multi-site chain of clinics, you are going to need exercise prescription software to help save you time and work smart, while also helping improve patient care.