Kirkland, WA -- (ReleaseWire) -- 02/26/2018 --As outpatient joint replacement goes mainstream, the joint replacement landscape demands new solutions to address old problems, according to Craig McAllister, MD, a ProOrtho surgeon and president and chief medical officer of SwiftPath Program, LLC. State-of-the-art outpatient facilities and specialists are embracing new telehealth software platforms and digital products from developers like SwiftPath. These are designed to alter how healthcare delivery, access and education in the outpatient space is managed—not only locally--but for patients who travel to access outpatient joint replacement surgery.
"The integration of these solutions is no longer a cool idea or pilot project," says Craig McAllister, MD, "It's the new reality and an important way to improve wider access to world-class joint replacement care, while also providing tools to reduce cost and improve the patient experience."
SwiftPath's new telehealth platform optimizes patient care in the outpatient space by providing access to regional, national and international patients for pre-op consults, patient engagement and education, patient surgical path selection, routine post-op care and cloud-based home monitoring care (with patient-reported outcomes available in real-time for surgeons).
According to Dr. McAllister, many arthritis patients live in areas where they simply do not have local access to state-of-the-art facilities and joint replacement surgeons. Now, outpatient joint replacement protocols, coupled with telehealth applications, allow patients to travel regionally, nationally and internationally to obtain best-in-class care and to safely recover in the comfort of their homes.
ProOrtho patient Kari Cummings recently took advantage of SwiftPath's telehealth application to meet with Dr. McAllister for a pre-op consult via teleconference. That saved her more than four hours of commute time, the cost of gas, the cost of lost wages and the aggravation of sitting on the interstate in traffic. "It was wonderful," Cummings says. "I was able to see the x-rays online. I was able to see my MRI. He took me through all of my scope pictures. He had me hold my iPad and walk. I did a selfie holding [the iPad] down by my knee. It saved me a lot of time. I love to have that option."
"Given the challenges we face in health care today—delivering care with the highest quality while improving the patient experience and reducing costs— means that the very foundation of how medicine is delivered needs to change," Dr. McAllister says. "Telehealth is the key to accomplishing those goals in the outpatient space."
About SwiftPath
SwiftPath (http://www.swiftpath.com) develops consensus-based protocols, patient education programs and an array of information technology tools to assure the safety and efficiency of outpatient and early discharge setting joint replacement.
About ProOrtho
ProOrtho (http://www.proortho.com) provides world-class orthopedic care by offering the widest spectrum of surgical and non-surgical options paired with the most advanced technologies and pain management treatments available.