Physitrack enhancing services at St. George's

St George’s University Hospitals NHS Trust serves a population of 1.3 million and is the largest healthcare provider in southwest London. The MSK physiotherapy outpatients department is one of the largest physiotherapy providers in the area, offering extensive treatment facilities for the local population and major trauma patients across the south-east of England. The department has successfully embedded Physitrack into the department as its primary exercise prescription solution. 

Consultant Physiotherapist, Ben Wanless, who leads the service and has been involved in the work, says "Getting patients engaged with their exercises has always been a problem in MSK physio. Our evaluation has shown that engagement and adherence to prescribed exercise programmes is 25% better with Physitrack. Early figures also suggest a reduction in re-admissions. We are currently looking into this in more detail with our evaluation."

Patient feedback has been fantastic:

“I loved the app. The reminders and the videos really helped me get on top of my exercises”

 “The videos were a useful reminder as otherwise I think I may have forgotten how many [exercises] I was supposed to do”

 “Really great idea. It made it easier to contact your physio with questions about your exercises”

St. George’s are now looking to evaluate Physitrack’s potential to enhance their service in several other ways. This includes; evaluating if Physitrack can lead to a reduction in face to face contacts; evaluating if Physitrack can aid self-management earlier on in the MSK Triage pathway; evaluating the value of delivering our group exercise classes with iPads instead of clinicians. These factors are all key in not only helping to reduce the strain on the UK’s National Health Service, but also improving the speed at which their patients can access these invaluable services.