Throughout the Phase I project, the Active Therapy Systems (ATS) team developed the foundation and infrastructure of a technology platform to deliver virtual physical therapy with remote patient monitoring for those with neurological disorders such as Parkinson's Disease (PD). Currently, there are over one million Americans living with PD. The economic burden, including direct and in-direct medical costs is estimated to be over $52 billion, annually. Those numbers are expected to increase by more than 50% within the next 20 years.

Physical and occupational therapy (PT/OT) for those with neurological disorders is proven to help improve physical and cognitive function while significantly reducing depression and anxiety. A growing body of research suggests that when implemented correctly, neurological disease progression may be slowed or even prevented in PD, but when therapy is sporadic, as most are, retrogression ensues. Additionally, the effectiveness of the therapy intervention depends not only on the quality of treatment, but on the implementation parameters and frequency at which the intervention is performed. Therefore, a major problem exists for a majority of people living with PD due to the time, travel, and costs associated with seeking specialized treatment.

Access to specialized physical therapy is severely limited by the distance or necessary travel required to see a specialist physical therapist, the time required by the individual with PD and their caregivers to attend regular appointments, and the out-of-pocket costs associated with on-going care that becomes too burdensome over time. It is imperative to provide a low-cost, non-pharmacologic solution to help manage systems and help individuals maintain their independence.

The ATS PT platform, ?Total PT Connect (TotalPT),? provides unlimited access to personalized, virtual physical therapy sessions with remote patient monitoring for those with neurological disorders. The plug-and-play solution was designed with the end-user at the forefront of development. Using a tablet with proprietary software and associated remote monitoring devices, patients receive specialized care that is overseen by their own dedicated PT, from the comfort of their home. TotalPT combines PT guidance with real-time automation to deliver personalized disease specific treatment via physical and cognitive therapy with bio feedback monitoring, using exercise-based complex movements and tasks to enhance neuroplasticity through challenging specific areas of brain function. Unique data points are collected and analyzed by the platform to provide insight into a person?s condition and disease progression which will help guide the clinical decision making of the medical care team, including the patient?s neurologist.

The goal for the Total PT Connect platform is to provide individuals with the tools needed to receive specialized care by reducing most barriers to participation. Through the personalization of therapy and on-going data monitoring, ATS hopes to provide more accurate information regarding disease progression and reduce adverse events with earlier interventions. Additionally, the team hopes to improve medication management through tracking features that will be implemented into the platform through future work. As the number of patients using the platform increase and the data sets being collected become more robust, ATS anticipates contributing to improvements in the standards of care for those with PD, and hopefully one day, contributing to finding the cure.

Last Modified: 09/24/2022
Modified by: Bennett Gatto