Speech Therapy App Releases Patient Data That May Help Therapists
Some of the biggest advances in speech therapy have begun to emerge in the field of telemedicine. The combination of technology with traditional therapeutic principles is continuing to change the landscape of the profession. More patients are being reached via apps and digital communications than ever before. Constant Therapy is an app that hopes to advance the profession even further.
What is Constant Therapy?
Constant Therapy is an app available from the App Store, Google Play, and Amazon Apps. It is a mobile therapy app designed for patients who have suffer with the effects of a stroke, brain injury, learning disabilities, or aphasia. The content is research based and used by many nationally recognized institutions such as the Stroke Comeback Center and the Spaulding Rehabilitation Network. It is also used by special education professionals as a learning tool for students with a variety of learning disabilities.
Constant Therapy creates individualized plans for every patient by analyzing the strengths and weaknesses unique to their situation. The NeuroPerformance Engine is the backbone of the system. It utilizes analytical data collected from each patient and combines it with global data collected from their pool of users along with the most current research data to create the plan and track gains. The dynamic experience grows with the users and constantly updates the tasks assigned. The current library has 58 categories and more than 60,000 unique exercises. The app is designed to be used by patients on their own or under the guidance of a therapist.
Research
As previously mentioned, Constant Therapy records statistical data from all of their users. They recently released the compiled data created by users who have collectively completed more than 20 million therapy exercises. As scientist and researchers review the data, it is likely they will find information that will be beneficial to patients suffering from neurological disorders and injuries.
Within the larger data set are some of the stroke-related specific insights. The time spent actively engaged in therapy averaged 5 hours with the app as opposed to the 1-3 hours in a clinical setting. The greater amount of time indicates patients are willing to engage in more rehabilitation time than they may have access to. Cognitive and language accuracy improved by 15% for patients completing 100 exercises and 45% for those who completed 500 or more. This clearly demonstrates a correlative relationship between an increase in therapeutic activities and an increase in the efficacy of rehabilitation.
The research seems to indicate that patients, in this instance those who suffered from a stroke, clearly benefit from greater exposure to speech therapy methodology. Given the limits of time and funding for in person therapy, it seems beneficial to offer the additional therapy for those patients who seem receptive.