What tools therapists use for treatment evalution?

[healfer]

I'm using Biocomtech's Heart Rhythm Scanner on my patients for therapy effectiveness evaluation. It works pretty good for me. But I want to see other options - what others are using for the same purpose?

Any info is appreciated.

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[Fyzzio]

Hi,
I don't know what the Biocomtech is.

using for the same purpose?

Could you please specify, what this purpose is or for what kind of treatment you need an evaluation tool?
Would you not usually go back to the tool which you used for the assessment in the first place, e.g. an EB outcome measure???

Or is this just cheap advertising????
Cheers,
Fyzzio

[healfer1]

It's me again, even though under a different account. Had problems loggin-into the system...

To answer your question, currently I'm treating RSD (Reflex Sympathetic dystrofhy). It's hard to get patient feedack on the treatment itself, therefore I use heart rate variability tool to check the progress with pre- and post- assessments to see the shift. And, of course, I need to see the progress report with changes for the last month or longer...

I guess my question is like a shoot in the dark and without specifics I can't get the correct answer, but I'm rather interested in various products and applications that therapists use. The friend of mine is working with patients with high risk of sudden cardiac death and asked my advice on the tools he can use (for him daily lab results for each patient is an overkill) and I recommended the same tool I use since I do not know any other... Anyhow, to make the long story short, are there any tools in general you use and can recommend?

Thank you!

[Fyzzio]

Hi,
I still don't understand how a heart rate scanner can help you with measuring outcomes for a client with RSD, but then again, neither am I a specialist for that area nor do I know what this mashine is capable of measuring.

As to mashines: We use heart rate monitors for cardiovascular fitness - but even those have been proven to be unreliable; and if available hand held dynamometers; but don't tend to commonly use mashines at all. I also wouldn't really know what for. The tools I mainly use are EB outcome measures and there is heaps of them, depending on the area you work in.
The outcomes we measure refer back to goals which are determined by the client. They are functional, so refer to an activity/ task at home or work. No need for mashines to measure that.
It would be nice to have a mashine available that measures muscle strength, but then again, this has no meaning unless the actual functional activity in question has been achieved.

Maybe someone else uses mashines to measure outcomes?????
Good luck,
Fyzzio

[healfer]

Thanks for the information Fyzzio. Just to clarify what I'm doing and why I'm seeing the tool useful in my practice. As of RSD, I'm using Heart Rhythm Scanner to measure the sympathetic/parasympathetic balance. If I'm seeing that my treatment caused sympathetic activity normalize (or at least move towards the correct direction) then it is a real confirmation that the particular treatment was successful. The tool actualy shows me the shift for both sympathetic and parasympathetic activities with pre- and post- assessments on the patient. You see it is very tough to get from patient objective answer whether the pain was actually relieved. Of course if my treatment significantly reduced pain my patient would report that but in most cases single treatment isn't very effective. Here the benefit of using machine comes
As of your case to measure muscle strength, I've seen a mechanical device with a gauge that patient squeezes with his wrist. That one actually shows the strength of his muscles... Maybe you can use such a device in conjunction with Fitness Test from Health Reviser (tool again ) which is useful to make a correction on the mechanical device reading... Just because the fitness test would take care of the current physical condition (any performed fitness activities will be taken into account, time of the day etc ).