Rehabilitation and recovery after knee replacement surgery is a complex, challenging, and often painful process. Therefore, rehab patients should strive to maintain an effective and efficient care routine in order to minimize their pain, expedite their healing process, and restore their quality of life as soon as possible.
A treatment plan may include a standard rehabilitation routine prescribed by a patient’s physical therapist. However, a better alternative is to use modern, telehealth-powered rehabilitation technology such as those offered by ROM Technologies ™, the leader in innovative, cutting-edge, home-based rehab technologies and post-op recovery and care devices.
An example is the ROMTech ® PortableConnect ®, a telehealth device designed for knee replacement surgery patients. This device has already been proven to offer better patient outcomes than standard post-op rehab care.
How Durable Medical Equipment Can Help Knee Replacement Patients
It’s essential to create an easy-to-navigate living space for the recovering patient. This includes installing assistive devices to help with mobility, removing potential trip hazards, and more.
And this is where Durable Medical Equipment, or DME, enters the scene. During the recovery, the artificial or operated knee is slowly conditioned to create flexibility and regain its normal range of motion. However, the patient must also have the opportunity to go about their everyday tasks as normally and smoothly as possible.
Peter Arn, CEO of ROMTech ®, explains how clinicians in the company’s medical advisory and assessment board continually stress the importance of patients feeling safe and confident during their healing journey to expedite recovery.
Any unfortunate accident during this period can seriously hamper rehabilitation. In the worst-case scenario, the personmay undergo surgery all over again. This is why one must use the proper DME to create a safe environment for the recovering patient.
What Are The Most Essential Knee Surgery Recovery Products?
Peter Arn requested several clinicians who utilize PortableConnect ® to compile a list of the most essential products that aid in creating an independent and secure recovery environment for knee surgery patients.
The list below is crafted from the recommendations of those clinicians.
DME Products For The Bedroom
- Medical Bed Rail
- Adjustable Bed Frame
- Knee Support Cushion
- Steel Bedside Commode (commonly a requirement during the early stages of recovery)
DME Products For The Bathroom
- Grab Bars (Install as many as required around the room, including the shower, toilet, or any other areas with a fall risk)
- Elevated Toilet Seat with Grab Bar
- Non-Slip Bath Mat
- Adjustable Shower Bench
DME Products For The Living Room & Kitchen
- Raised Seat Cushion
- Non-Slip Step-Up Stool
- Grabber Tool With Magnet
- Adjustable Standing Aid For Couch
- Portable Table (To be used if the table is uncomfortable to sit at for the recovering patient)
In addition, one may also consider products like leg lifter straps, long-handle bath loofahs, sock aids, adjustable shoehorns, etc.
The above list does not mention products like assistive walking devices since they are part of the rehab process. Your physical therapist will prescribe them anyway, whether you’re following standard rehab care or managing your recovery through advanced at-home rehab devices like the ROMTech ® PortableConnect ®.
Introducing The PortableConnect ® From ROM Technologies ™
Patients are advised to start moving their joints (therapeutic movements) as early as possible after knee surgery–ideally from the first day after surgery. However, this is anything but easy for patients.
For one thing, complications such as swelling, post-operative pain, and limited range of motion are directly related to knee surgery. More importantly, since the muscles around knee joints have suffered from prolonged periods of atrophy (due to arthritis or injury), beginning therapeutic movements immediately after surgery poses a tough challenge for patients.
According to Peter Arn, the ROMTech ® team developed the PortableConnect ® to help with those specific complications. This adaptive technology is equipped with a host of customizable and adjustable features that allow the recovering patients to start exercising with passive motion immediately following the surgery––without any help from a therapist and irrespective of how swollen or painful their joints feel after surgery.
Peter Arn explains that thanks to the four built-in Pedaling Therapy Modes (Passive, Assisted, Resistance, and Active), once a patient sits on the device and starts pedaling, the pedal radius can be adjusted to align with a patient’s current range of motion.
This means the patient can start exercising their joints immediately after surgery with little pain. Patients can quickly complete 3-5 daily sessions, even during the first week post-surgery, which eventually leads to considerably faster recovery than standard rehab routines.
Moreover, the Portable Connect has a range of next-gen ROMTech ® patented telehealth technologies. For example, the AccuAngle ®, a wearable tracking device that patients attach to the side of their legs during therapy sessions, records and stores knee extension and flexion data on the device’s memory.
This helps the patient’s therapist or clinician to remotely track the recovery progress by visiting the patient portal via the PortableConnect ® app. In addition, the device’s live interface technology enables patients to participate in -real-time consultations with their therapists via video link, instead of leaving their homes and visiting a care center for advice and consultation.
It’s clear that the medical engineering team at ROMTech ® wanted to make the device as valuable to patients and physicians as possible.
Who Is Peter Arn, CEO of ROM Technologies ™?
A highly experienced and visionary entrepreneur, Peter Arn has elevated ROMTech ® and established it as the leading, innovative, at-home, modern rehabilitation device. Since joining the company as CEO, Peter Arn has remained actively involved in all critical aspects of the company’s functioning, including hiring, fundraising, product development, creating robust sales channels, and more.
As for his career before ROMTech ®, Peter Arn had previously served in several executive roles at four early-stage enterprises, leading them to rapid growth and profitable exits.
