The Gatherer Partnership, in collaboration with motorsport engineering expert John Bailey, has deployed its Formula 1 technology for objective analysis and measurement of physiotherapy products to support critical decisions relating to patient assessment, condition and the need for surgical intervention.
The partnership aims to develop a range of new products and support packages to offer physiotherapists accurate and objective data for the management of neuromusculoskeletal conditions.
The Gatherer Partnership incorporates electronic measurement devices that are typically found in F1 racing cars, to acquire such objective data.
The acquired data will enable physiotherapists to assess the patient’s true condition, determine the need for surgery as well as the ability to create and administer bespoke conditioning and rehabilitation programmes.
Gatherer said that physiotherapy often relies on subjective data that can affect recovery levels and times and their equipment will provide information on what the patient really can achieve and how their condition is developing over time. Extensive work undertaken with rugby players suggests we can improve recovery times too.
Bailey said that using loadcells and associated telemetry will introduce previously unseen levels of accuracy, repeatability and quality data to the physiotherapy profession and can revolutionise the role of the physiotherapist.
“Users would have access to objective data on a patient’s condition and its progression based on actual data rather than a subjective assessment. This could be very useful to the insurance industry or even for benefits agencies for example,” Bailey said.