Implementation of Remote Therapeutic Monitoring into Physical Therapy at a Large Academic Healthcare System

Abstract

Remote therapeutic monitoring (RTM) is an mHealth solution that allows physical therapists to communicate with patients who have musculoskeletal conditions and track their progress outside of clinic visits using a mobile application. By enhancing patients' engagement with their care, RTM stands to increase the effectiveness of physical therapy care for patients with musculoskeletal conditions. At the same time, RTM is very different than traditional physical therapy services as it is delivered through a mobile application outside of scheduled clinical visits. The procedural codes used to cover RTM services are also new, having been announced in 2022 by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. As such, best practice approaches for implementing RTM into clinical practice have not been established. Since early 2024, our team has been actively implementing a mobile application and RTM workflows across a large outpatient rehabilitation network. In this presentation, our team will describe our experiences implementing RTM services across our network. Guided by the RE-AIM framework, we will report on patient acceptance and utilization of these services, as well as provider uptake of RTM and utilization rates. We will also provide preliminary estimates regarding the influence of RTM on patient-reported outcomes, which are routinely collected at our institution. Lastly, we will discuss challenges we have experiences during implementation and recommendations for other institutions interested in implementing RTM services.