The department of neurology, AIIMS, will finalise the proposal and send it to the administration for approval. (Express photo/File)In an innovative move, physiotherapists at AIIMS are planning to provide robot-assisted physical therapy to patients. The physiotherapy department is soon going to procure this new technology, a first at the medical institute, for early rehabilitation of patients.
“People suffering from the after-effects of strokes, spinal cord injuries, trauma and other neurological and orthopaedic conditions will benefit from the new technology. It will improve their physical, mental and sensory functions,” said Dr Prabhat Ranjan, senior physiotherapist, department of neurology, AIIMS.
The department will finalise the proposal and send it to the administration for approval. “The technology is quite popular in many developed countries. Robotics is the latest tool in physical therapy and rehabilitation,” Ranjan said at the Seventh International Conference of Physical Therapy- AIIMS 2018 on Sunday.
Technology to reduce treatment time
The two-day conference was attended by more than 600 delegates from different parts of India and abroad. It was inaugurated by Minister of State for Health Ashwini Kumar Choubey on Saturday.
Choubey said the government will soon pass the Allied and Healthcare Professions Bill, 2018, and appealed to the Opposition for support as the Act would benefit many. “Physiotherapists are quite upbeat after the Cabinet approved the Bill, which seeks to regulate and standardise education, training and services of healthcare professionals, including physiotherapists,” he said.
Dr Sanjiv K Jha, president of the Indian Association of Physiotherapists, said, “The Bill will… also check unprofessional practice/quackery in physiotherapy by untrained professionals.”
