Friday, December 19, 2008

Treatment Exchange Part I, The “Unboxing” and First Impressions

 

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Being the quintessential “early adopter” that I am I couldn’t resist the temptation to give Treatment Exchange a whirl particularly after a fairly impressive initial online demo. 

Treatment Exchange is a new online Application Service Provider (ASP) which provides an interactive home program management solution for Physical Therapists and Occupational Therapists.  We are all aware of the various home program systems available that consist of essentially basic line drawings or stick figures or the simply hand drawn pictures that therapists provide to patients.  We are also all aware that compliance with this system is extremely poor.

Treatment Exchange seeks to solve many of the inherent problems of Home Program Management.  First, instead of simple static line drawings, it uses color pictures, usually available as animated slide presentations or video, with accompanying instructions.  Second, all materials are fully customizable by the clinician.  Third and probably most important this system is fully an interactive experience between therapist and patient.  Integrated into Treatment Exchange is a two way messaging system that helps to insure compliance.  It also provides for ongoing contact which one can only imagine will not only improve compliance but also improve patient retention both over the short term and the long term.

 

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Screenshot of the Therapist Home Page showing Message Log for all messages between Therapist and Patient.

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Screenshot of Patient Database Listing

While we have only just “gone live” with this system, it has already been well received by my patients, the operation is fairly intuitive after a 90 minute initial online tutorial and the screens are easy to navigate.

I will continue with a further review of this product, but suffice it to say I am very impressed with the product and customer service.  Part II of this series will focus a bit more on the specifics of the product.

With dwindling reimbursement and looking for ways to make health care dollars go further this could be “The Next Big Thing”.