Intensive Brain Injury Telehealth Rehabilitation that Integrates Technology with Therapy in the Home

The Institute for Cognitive Prosthetics (ICP) is a leader in the use of personal technology to increase the recovery of cognitive functioning from brain injury. We live in an era when the vast majority of people use 2 or more computing devices daily providing cognitive support for a wide range of their daily activities. When a person gets a brain injury from an accident or stroke, the most common impact is a loss of some cognitive functioning. Our therapy uses a combination of the individual's abilities coupled with their personal technology to support activities impaired by brain injury.

Our therapy services are optimized for 1) patients who have plateaued in conventional in-clinic cognitive rehabilitation; 2) High Achieving individuals - by occupational, avocational, or educational achievement - who may have difficulty with conventional rehabilitation. This group has shown considerable success with ICP's approach to therapy.

In our therapy, we use technology as part of a strongly patient-centered care approach, which also harnesses the patient's strengths and abilities in their recovery. Our therapy focuses on the individual's personal priority activities which currently require caregiver assistance in order to successfully perform those activities.

Many brain injury rehabilitation patients are discharged from conventional brain injury rehabilitation and continue to have cognitive disabilities which impair their ability to perform activities that were part of their daily lives. This leaves the individual with a brain injury dependent on caregiver support.

Our therapists are given specialized proprietary training in treating brain injury patients. This includes ways for harnessing patient abilities that are context-specific, are not going to be identified by conventional clinical testing. It also includes training in the use and evaluation of technology that goes beyond the training that rehabilitation clinicians typically receive. Because technology is a key component of our therapy, we also have the ability to customize the individual's technology environment when necessary to enable the performance of a personal priority activity. Typically an enhancement can be developed fast enough to be used in treating that patient.

Mission

The mission of the Institute for Cognitive Prosthetics (ICP) is to refine and adapt Home Telehealth to a broad array of medical conditions, diseases, and clinical services. ICP has shown that Home Telehealth enables therapists to treat patients who had plateaued in conventional in-clinic therapy, and have them rapidly begin to make further gains in therapy and recovery. Most patients have been able to make gains. Some patients made remarkable gains. Patients become active and emotionally engaged in the process of their therapy, which is far better than achieving just patient compliance.

The Home Telehealth modality is actually a clinic-to-patient's-settings model, where the setting is often the home but also includes school, the workplace, and the community. The setting is environment in which the patient engages in life's activities. Clinicians are able to achieve substantial clinical outcomes by gaining more information about the patient in those physical and social environments. This information leads to better focused and more effective therapy and treatment. When the patients are treated in their natural environments, it is easier for them to carry over the results of therapy and clinical recommendation, and to integrate them into their lives. And this is what it means for a patient to be active and engages in managing their care.

Every brain injury is unique, and each individual is unique. Contact us to discuss your situation.