Therapists charged with delivering digital strategies must be given appropriate training for the implementation to be a success, says one of the neuro-rehab sector’s champions of remote rehabilitation.
Leanna Luxton, co-founder of Remote Rehab, believes that for healthcare to truly adopt digital and technology-led rehabilitation for patients, securing the support of those on the frontline is crucial.
Remote Rehab was created during the pandemic to unite therapists from around the world and share best practice in digitalisation, and the team recently delivered the Virtually Successful conference – a first-of-its-kind event which shared the inspirational stories and experiences of international rehab tech entrepreneurs and innovators.
Leanna Luxton
But while digital adoption remains a hot topic, with unprecedented levels of use since March 2020, Leanna believes that unless therapists are given proper training, its impact will not be as effective.
“We are seeing more conversations around this topic, and Trusts are now looking at this seriously as we’ve seen the impact and need for digital services – but up-skilling the workforce is crucial to really embedding this,” says neurophysiotherapist Leanna, who has been a prominent voice around the need for digital adoption in healthcare.
“We’ve got people using VR, apps, digital platforms, but they often aren’t understood by the therapists on the ground. They don’t know how to use them properly, so how is the impact going to be felt by patients?
“You can spend thousands of pounds on VR headsets but if you don’t know how to input that into the pathway, how it can improve the patient experience, then how is it going to work?
“Using digital as part of a blended approach to rehabilitation can really enhance or supplement the dose or intensity of rehabilitation, but we know there is resistance to change or adaptation. There is a need for us to be at the forefront of the change or these things will be forced upon us.’’
“But we see this as something that proper training, proper up-skilling, can really help with. If you embed the technology into a service, and therapists can see how it benefits their clients, then that is the way forward. This is where RRC comes in.”
Through the five-day Virtually Successful online event, therapists from across the world heard from more than 50 leaders in digital innovation as to how they had overcome the challenges around acceptance to secure successful adoption and roll-out.
The conference, which covered all aspects of telehealth and its implementation, is now available to access online and can form part of the digital training and increased awareness of individual therapists, multi-disciplinary teams (MDTs) or entire NHS Trusts, Integrated Care Systems (ICS) and Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs). Pricing structures for each individual or group have been devised accordingly.
“We want the conference to be as accessible as possible and give people throughout this community the chance to hear and learn from the speakers,” says Leanna.
“The pricing shouldn’t prevent that, which is why we’ve come up with a number of very cost- effective options. We want the decision to be a no-brainer, so that staff can hear this insight and learn from it and then act on it.
“As well as teams being able to access the conference, we’re also looking at holding workshops where we can help in setting up or implementing a service, which will help to embed the technology.
“We are committed to doing all we can to support teams in using digital, so we can all make change together.”
