Adapting your business: Objectively assessing functional movement with telehealth

In this instalment of our live event series on adapting health businesses to COVID-19, we took a closer look at how one team of clinicians are conducting objective assessments via telehealth to assess their clients' strength, flexibility and balance.

Our guests Andrew and Stephen run Movement Assessment Technologies (MAT) in Victoria, Australia. Their approach is all about quantifying physical movement so they can perform a precise needs analysis and effectively treat the source of their clients' pain. Under normal circumstances, the pair have access to state-of-the-art tools in their clinic that help them make precise assessments. Recently, thought, they've converted all of their appointments to telehealth and have come to rely on just a few everyday household items instead.

Check out our discussion with them on YouTube to learn more about how they have adapted their practice to keep achieving excellent outcomes.

Here are some of the highlights:

What kinds of services are MAT offering via telehealth?

The pair have been able to transfer everything from their new client consultations through to high-level performance support over to telehealth. They have some experience with telehealth as they were both spending a lot of time on the road before COVID-19, including one consult Stephen ran from a flight between Hong Kong and Taiwan in a monsoon!

How do they structure their client sessions on telehealth?

MAT is all about solid processes, and Stephen and Andrew have made some adjustments, so there are extra opportunities for rapport with their patient. If they're working with someone new, they'll spend a lot of time in the initial session collecting information about the individual and their issue, as well as setting expectations. They use their objective assessments to establish a baseline and formulate goals, with a plan for each follow-up session.

Before sessions that will include assessments, they send an email to the patient detailing the items they will need. Most commonly this includes a chair, tape measure and weights (these can be improvised, though).

After the session, if necessary, they'll set exercise prescriptions using Physitrack.

They recommend making every session, whether with a new or existing client, as personal as possible. They put in a bit of extra effort using a video tool called Bonjoro.

Are they charging the same price for telehealth sessions as their in-person consultations?

Yes, because the process and work undertaken is very similar to their in-person appointments in most cases. However, they have added an extra free 15-30 minutes to each appointment to help ensure an exceptional client experience.

What kinds of assessments are they using?

Andrew and Stephen demonstrated some of their assessments live for us, and you can also find more details as well as the diagrams from the call in their telehealth guide ebook. The book also has a 20% off voucher code for their next MAT online course.