What will the Rehab profession look like in 5 years?
Remote Therapeutic Monitoring (RTM) will have a profound impact on Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy, so much so I do not think the term “Rehabilitation Professionals” will survive to 2030. Let’s focus on the “Re” in Rehabilitation Professionals.
Re: a prefix, occurring originally in loanwords from Latin, used with the meaning “again” or “again and again” to indicate repetition, or with the meaning “back” or “backward” to indicate withdrawal or backward motion.
This is where I take issue with the “Re” as I think the future patient and clinician relationships will look more like a coach to athlete or a primary care doctor to patient relationship. Where the goal is to ever increase the capacity of a patient while also having the ability to help recover when the inevitable tweaks and injuries happen. The idea of going to a physical therapist for preventative work and maintenance will become commonplace, especially as the new Remote Therapeutic Monitoring (RTM) codes incentivize this economically for clinics.
The advent and fast growth of cash pay physical therapy signals the need for a change to the current injury rehab only mentality, and one can look at other areas of medicine for parallels. Mental health grew 11.3% in 2020 alone! And the mental health industry is shifting the mentality to one of consistent maintenance and long term relationships instead of only when someone is in a crisis. Companies like Betterhelp and Talkspace are part of the blockbuster investment year for mental health in 2021 where as an industry companies raised $5.5B with 68% of that money going to early stage companies. That means money is flowing into companies who are innovating within this space and creating new models for providers and patients (or else all the investment dollars would be going to the larger companies as is typical in a more steady state industry). MSK funding, in contrast was “only” $1.4B last year which primarily went to companies who are developing their own practices and solutions, not helping current clinicians. With a glass half full mentality one could see MSK at the precipice of an inflection point that will positively change the movement health of all Americans forever assuming our industry can follow the success of the mental health industry.
To see what this could look like I think of clinicians like Aaron with Squat University and Ryan with The Barbell Doc as examples of choosing a specific patient population (people like me who love barbell training) and being able to help in the growth, maintenance, and injury phases of each person’s movement health journey. With RTM these types of specialist can cultivate long term relationships that don’t have to be limited only to those who can afford cash pay, and instead insurance will pay for movement health visits.
, While a reimbursement shift has already happened we still need a mentality and a technology shift in order to make this happen. If you’re reading this you’re already a part of the mentality shift, and for that I thank you. The technology clinicians use will need to shift in order to drive this new paradigm, a HEP app will not work because it does not take into account the whole person, their goals, and is typically rarely used anyway. Instead, clinicians need to adopt technology that focuses on engaging with the patient at multiple levels and can flex to the different phases of movement health of a specific patient.
This is where SaRA Health comes in. We drive engagement and relationships through our platform. How much better does that model work? Well, our current engagement is between 70-80% of patients DAILY compared to the 36% in this study. Patients engaging in their physical recovery and beyond is how Rehab becomes movement health by focusing on the person’s movement health goals and focusing on decade long relationships.
Want to explore if SaRA Health is right for your organization? Submit this form or shoot me a note at (steven@srahealth.com) to learn more.
