Michael Oberlander, MD, is the founder, president and CMO of Trainer Rx, a web app that provides novel telehealth solutions to orthopedic specialists. He developed a new telerehabiliation platform for the app that focuses on workers’ compensation related procedures.
In a recent interview with Becker’s Spine Review, Dr. Oberlander discused his thoughts on telehealth and the new Trainer Rx platform.
Question: How can patients and physicians benefit from using Trainer Rx and its new platform for workers’ compensation?
Dr. Michael Oberlander: In general, patients in workers’ compensation can be challenging to treat. They don’t usually understand their diagnosis initially and often don’t follow physician instructions relative to home exercises. As a result, the injured worker may be delayed returning to work and may stay on pain
medication longer than necessary.
Trainer Rx has developed an advanced telerehabilitation platform that can improve how workers’ compensation programs treat and support injured workers, which translate to greater productivity and cost savings. We identified a need that is not being met and believe the Trainer Rx platform can fill the gap.
Injured workers who go through the sessions are given comprehensive content to help them learn about their diagnoses and the importance of sticking with their treatment plans. The exercises follow specific clinical pathways that are designed to be engaging and easy to follow. Patients receive regular reminders,
which encourage them to stay engaged and follow their progress. The combination of patient education, easy-to- follow exercise sessions and built-in accountability encourage the injured workers to complete their treatment plan.
The platform’s early successes in improving health outcomes led to collaborations with workers’ compensation companies like One Call Care Management. We recently evaluated the experiences of a group of injured workers after rotator cuff repair and found that those who engaged with our platform:
• Participated in an average of 65 sessions of rehab within a six-month period
• Spent an average of about 36 hours taking part in online therapy sessions
• Achieved a nearly 40 percent reduction in pain
These individuals also tended to return to work sooner and participate in regular activities.
Q: What inspired you to create Trainer Rx and now move into the world of workers compensation?
MO: I worked in a practice that treated professional and amateur athletes as well as injured workers. Musculoskeletal injuries are the single largest category of on-the- job injuries, accounting for more than 30 percent of all workers compensation costs. Digital therapeutics, like Trainer Rx, have the potential to not only
reduce costs but also help prevent injuries and improve rehabilitation and outcomes.
As a treating physician, I see a significant gap with conventional rehabilitation. Sometimes patients receive home exercises, sometimes they don’t. There is no consistency. Those who receive exercise sheets often lose them or forget how to do the exercises correctly while at home. Patients also tend to cancel or skip
their physical therapy sessions due to schedule conflicts and transportation issues. Most importantly, as a physician, it was frustrating to not know how my patients were progressing with their rehabilitation until weeks later. The Trainer Rx platform can solve many of these challenges, which providers encounter in their
practices.
Q: What other developments do you predict for Trainer Rx in 2018?
MO: In addition to growing our partnerships with companies in the workers’ compensation industry, we are also in the process of collaborating with enterprise healthcare to reduce costs and support population health management.
We continually add new clinical pathways that are evidence based to cover a greater number of musculoskeletal injuries. Trainer Rx now offers more than 150 clinical pathways. We are also exploring the possibility of adding chat groups within our platform to allow patients to communicate and share their personal
experiences with each other.
While there are a few other telerehabilitaion platforms, none are as comprehensive. Many providers now regard Trainer Rx as a leader in mobile health. Those who prescribe the Trainer Rx platform emphasize our groundbreaking approach to musculoskeletal rehabilitation. They see the value of the platform in
empowering the patients to return to work and in reducing the need to prescribe prescription pain medicine, therefore decreasing the potential for addiction.