In 2023, Theratrak Founder & OT Laura Simmons worked with industry and research leaders from Western Sydney University to evaluate how users engaged with the Theratrak platform.
Research conducted and research written by:
Dr Caroline Mills, Laura Simmons, Dr Kaniz Fatema, Dr Paul Fahey, Professor Karen Liu
Theratrak & Western Sydney University, School of Health Sciences
Data-driven therapy home programs: Quantitative Evaluation of a digital home-programming tool
Introduction
With increased need for timely healthcare and a health workforce shortage, there is a critical need for innovation in service delivery.
With known barriers to healthcare experienced by people with disability (Arnold et al., 2023), mobile health applications may serve to increase timely access to healthcare and therapies, (Radcliffe et al., 2021; Broglia et al., 2019).
Theratrak is an app for asynchronous telehealth which overcomes time, cost and location constraints of face-to-face service delivery.
Theratrak allows the development and implementation of flexible home programs and information sharing between therapists, clients and other professionals.
Aim
Describe Theratrak use as captured by the Theratrak program and describe the service provision delivered by Theratrak.
Method
A retrospective quantitative descriptive methodology was employed to capture a one-time snapshot of Theratrak use. De-identified data was accessed from the Theratrak app following use. Ethical approval was obtained from Western Sydney University HREC.
Results
There were 1525 individual users who were served by 387 therapists from 77 therapy practices.
Most Theratrak users are children who were supported by a guardian (parent/carer) in using the app.
Theratrak users usually receive their home programs in a timely manner, with 88% of users receiving a therapy program within 7 days of beginning Theratrak use (see Table 1).
Diagnosis was recorded for only 20% of users. Of the 20% (n=357) of people who had a diagnosis as recorded by Theratrak, over 50% were autistic (n= 178), with a further 13% having a developmental delay.
When examining diagnosis of users by age, most of the users who were under 10 years were autistic, had ADHD and/or a developmental delay. Where mental health concerns were recorded, they were most commonly experienced by adults.
Therapy home programs were prescribed to 1,293 out of the 1,525 users. 83.4% of programs were prescribed by an occupational therapist. There were 3,149 home programs prescribed and over 10,000 activities.
Most users had 1-2 home programs prescribed by their therapist.
Most intervention activities on Theratrak were related to sensory regulation, followed by core strength and gross motor.
Discussion and Conclusion
Mobile applications like Theratrak may assist in the timely delivery of therapy services, overcoming wait times, and may serve as an adjunct to individual therapy sessions. Describing usage may offer insights into future app development and the inclusion of activities or programs which may benefit.
Future studies should explore usability and acceptability and understand the reasons behind non-completion of certain fields.
Tables & Figures for Research: Data-driven therapy home programs
Figure 1: Age of Theratrak Users- median age of user is 8 years old. 50% of users are aged between 5.7 years and 12.7 years.
Figure 2: Number of home programs received by Theratrak clients- over 30% received 1 or 2 home programs. One client received 148 home programs.
Table 1: Time taken to receive a package of therapy after being registered on the Theratrak platform.
Diagnosis of Theratrak Users: Data on Diagnosis was missing for 1180 out of 1525 (75.9%) of clients. – Option to record dx was only recorded more recently. – recording this isn’t forced.
Table 2: Diagnosis of Theratrak users by age
Table 3: Three most common activities prescribed on Theratrak
View the Poster: Data-driven therapy home programs
Want to learn more about Theratrak?
Book in for a demo to find out how it can save time in your clinic.
