Use of a Mobile Application to Increase Patient Compliance to a Prescribed Home Exercise Program and Improve Outcomes

Methods: The creator of the app offered free use of their app to a physical therapy clinic. As the app is only compatible with Apple products, the clinic used the app with any patient that had an iPhone. Retrospective review was conducted to determine if differences in patient outcomes were observed. Patients who had access to an iPad or iPhone were considered part of the “app group” and used the mobile app to reference and report PT HEP compliance. Patients without access to an iPad or iPhone were considered part of the “non-app group” and received traditional PT HEP prescription and monitoring. Patient data was extracted from patient medical records, de-identified, and sent to University researchers. An independent t-test was used to analyze age and compliance of the app group and the non-app group. Mann-Whitney U tests were used to analyze number of exercises assigned, global rating of change, functional index score, and pain rating. (See pdf for complete abstract