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Recruitment

Participants must be receiving outpatient or day rehab physical therapy (PT) at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, between the ages of 18-89 years, have a smartphone, and have a diagnosis of one of the following conditions: Parkinson’s disease, Multiple Sclerosis, stroke, post-Covid, lower extremity pain, back pain, or mild TBI/concussion. Study participants are able to use their personal Apple Watch, Fitbit or Garmin devices. Those who wish to participate, but do not own a device are provided with a Garmin device to use. Participant recruitment is currently closed. However, if you are still interested in the study, refer to the study contact information below to be contacted by the research team. 

If you meet these eligibility criteria and are interested in participating in the study, you can contact Kevin Smaller at (312)238-8326, or ksmaller@sralab.org, or refer to our study flyer.

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Summary

Exercise and other physical activities are effective physical therapy interventions for people with neurologic disorders, especially when it’s at a high intensity. Unfortunately, there’s currently no easy way for physical therapist to assess how well their patients are following along with the at-home exercise programs they’ve been given.

The popularity of wearable devices like smart watches and fitness trackers have provided an opportunity for physical therapists to gain more objective information about their patient’s everyday exercise and physical activity. Recently, medical facilities have begun using online platforms to secularly share that information with their health care providers. These services, called Remote Therapeutic Monitoring systems, are cloud-based platforms that enable clinicians like Physical Therapists to better guide their patient’s adherence to at home health recommendations.

The purpose of this pilot investigation is to determine the helpfulness, feasibility, and effectiveness of using a Remote Therapeutic Monitoring system to help physical therapists assess their patient’s adherence to their prescribed physical activity and exercise plans and assist clinical care, over the course of 6 months.

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Our Remote Therapeutic Monitoring System

We’ve partnered with Datos Health to provide a group of Shirley Ryan AbilityLab Physical Therapists a Therapeutic Monitoring platform for participating patients. Our Datos platform shares the patients’ daily step count, recorded workouts and heart rate during workouts with their treating therapist. This allows the therapists to stay up to date on their patient’s adherence to their prescribed activity goals and reach out to provide guidance. The platform also provides the patients with this activity data relative to their personalized goals. For example, a patient can see how much time during their aerobic exercise they spent in their target heart range zone and how much time was spent below or above it.

To preview the Datos platform and its features, refer to the images below.

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Resources for Current Participants

Coming soon!