What is Prehabilitation and How Can a Digital Care Solution Improve MSK Outcomes

Prehabilitation, also commonly known as prehab, is participation in therapy-based exercises to avoid injury, decrease pain, or to prepare for a surgery. When it comes to prehab, there are generally two approaches: surgical prehab and preventative prehab.

Surgical prehab is used before a surgical procedure to prepare the body for the upcoming procedure and strengthen supportive structures around the affected area. The purpose is to put the individual in the best position to recover from surgery and experience good outcomes during their post-surgical rehab process.

Preventative prehab is the process of taking preventative measures to reduce your chance of injury. Individuals with highly physical occupations that require heavy lifting; like construction workers and firefighters, or repetitive movements; like factory workers and warehouse employees, can benefit from prehab to perform at their best and prevent injury. 

What is digital prehab?

Digital prehab can be applied to both preventative and surgical prehab routines, and includes digital tools to help the patient reach their prehab goals. These can include digitally-enabled care options like personalized home exercise programs (HEP) and targeted education that will help the individual understand the condition they already have—or are working to prevent. These programs can be fully digital, or can be implemented in a hybrid model. 

In a hybrid model, the patient visits their physical therapist or occupational therapist in person, and is also provided virtual options like telehealth sessions or HEP to create more convenient, lower cost touch points to monitor progress and ensure the patient is engaged and advancing in their care program between visits.

What are the benefits of digital prehab?

Digital prehab can help stabilize pain levels before surgery, get patients prepared for the physical challenges following treatment, and get patients back on their feet faster after their procedure. For example, with patients undergoing Total Hip Arthroplasty, significant improvements were observed for pain, function, and length of stay.¹ Early physical therapy is also associated with reduced costs,² decreased use of imaging, fewer physician visits, reduced risk of surgery, and fewer opioid prescriptions.^3,4

Preventative digital prehab programs offer a way to proactively mitigate injury caused by everyday work activities, and correct these problems before a more severe injury occurs. Those with physically demanding jobs can mitigate injuries with digital education programs that promote correct lifting techniques, proper posture, and strengthening exercises, or pain-relieving techniques commonly taught at physical therapy. 

Office workers who spend long hours sitting at a desk can also benefit from digital prehab, and online workplace training promoting activities like stretching, regular breaks, and posture reminders can reduce the incidence of sedentary lifestyle injuries.

How can digital prehab and postoperative rehab help with musculoskeletal conditions?

Most elective surgeries in the US require months between scheduling and the day of surgery, leaving time for a comprehensive prehab program. Digital musculoskeletal prehab helps patients prepare and strengthen their bodies for the surgical process, helping them ease into their rehab assignment more seamlessly, reduce pain, and improve overall recovery. 

Digital care is also highly effective for increasing patient engagement while treating MSK injuries at a reduced cost. In fact, patients who received virtual MSK care after knee replacement reported similar outcomes and satisfaction compared with patients who received traditional in-person care at 60 percent lower utilization of resources.⁵

Research also indicates that there is a statistically significant increase for Knee Score (KS) and Function Score (FS) after a prehabilitation program. In one study, prehabilitation programs provided better preoperative KS and FS, and better KS up to 6 months postoperatively.⁶

Common digital tools that promote engagement for prehab and post-surgical rehab include:

• Home exercise programs
  • Prehab exercises are highly effective, promote patient engagement, and can help the patient develop an exercise routine that evolves during their care journey and continues with their post-rehabilitation program. In patients undergoing Total Knee Arthroplasty, significant improvements were observed for function, quadriceps strength, and length of stay.⁷ Prehab also gives the patient a chance to practice the exercises they’ll need to perform during their post-rehab program. 
• Patient education
  • Preparing for and recovering from an MSK surgery is a stressful time for patients, but a digital prehab musculoskeletal program empowers the patient to be proactive about their surgery. 
• Telehealth
  • Telehealth helps providers expand healthcare access and reduce the cost per episode, while still efficiently managing patient care. Live video interaction is an effective method for the treatment of MSK disorders and reported improvements in movement and functional outcomes. ⁸
• Patient communication and adherence tracking tools
  • Patient communication tools like patient mobile apps, online messaging platforms, and patient adherence tracking are effective for low-touchpoint interactions, like patient questions and check-ins. These promote continued patient engagement, improving the therapeutic alliance during the patient’s recovery journey.

How can MedBridge help with digital prehab and rehab for musculoskeletal conditions?

Whether your organization is looking at digital prehab to prevent workplace injuries or leverage comprehensive digital prehab and rehab programs to help patients recover from musculoskeletal injuries, MedBridge can help.

Preventative Prehab

MedBridge helped Occupational Accountable Care reduce total musculoskeletal costs by 77 percent by:

• Standardizing templates for common conditions and types of customers
• Customizing templates according to patient need
• Maximizing engagement with digital technology

Through its partnership with MedBridge, OAC reduced the frequency of OSHA-reportable injuries, improved the health and wellbeing of employees, and boosted long-term financial impact for employers. For an in-depth look, read our featured case study here.

Surgical Prehab

MedBridge partnered with a leading health system to launch their virtual pre-op and post-op comprehensive joint program, with the goals of improving outcomes and patient satisfaction, lowering readmissions, and reducing costs.

By partnering with MedBridge, they were able to launch a coordinated virtual pre-op and post-op comprehensive joint program across the care continuum and all facilities within the region, which helped them standardize their care, boost operational efficiency, and drive significant improvements in outcomes. For an in-depth look, read our infographic here.