Wearable technology really proved itself in 2015. The Apple Watch and LEAF by Bellabeat have made it easy for us to track our heart rate, breathing, sleep patterns and activity without even thinking about it. Wearable technology helps us identify bad habits and potential health issues that we otherwise may not have known about.
These types of gadgets are now available in mainstream stores and as the technology advances they are bound to become more and more affordable. At Sheffield Physiotherapy, we have invested in a type of wearable technology that is even more advanced than these products available on the mass market. This technology, called ViMove, is available to our patients in Sheffield. We are the first clinic in Sheffield to have access to it.
What is ViMove?
“A smart device, powered by wearable sensors, is providing new and important insights to the causes of back pain.”
The Times
ViMove is essentially a set of wireless little sensor strips which are attached to your body. Once they are put in place you can continue your normal activities throughout the day. You may not notice they are even there, but they are busy objectively measuring your every movement at 200 frames per second. The data is sent to your physiotherapist in a clear, visual and easily interpretable format. This data helps the physiotherapist answer a lot of questions about your movement and the source of your pain. During flexion, what’s the breakdown between pelvic movement and lumbar spine movement? How does the patient progress from repetition to repetition? How about when they’re fresh vs. fatigued? The level of information that ViMove provides far surpasses traditional methods of analysing movement.
How can ViMove help improve my treatment?
ViMove enables the physiotherapist to make a far more accurate diagnosis about what is causing your pain, which means that they have a clearer idea of what type of treatment is going to be the most successful. It also helps them track your progress.
In a recent randomized controlled trial, patients treated with ViMove for ten weeks were more than 3X more likely to have clinically important improvements (>30% over baseline), in reduced back pain and 2.5X more likely to have clinically important improvements in activity limitation vs. patients treated with guidelines based care at 12 months.
For further information about ViMove please call 0114 268 6677 or email info@sheffieldphysiotherapy.co.uk.
