How to best engage with your patients during a physiotherapy appointment?
Never assume patients know what to expect!
Let them know the course of their GDT protocol in detail:
Tell them about session frequency and the treatment sequence. This will help them to reduce their possible anxiety and to ensure their compliance with the treatment.
Set expectations: they play an important role in the outcomes!
Openly discuss and set upfront patient expectations; whether they relate to treatment time, pain release, increase of the range of motion, change in the quality of life, etc.
Recognize your patients as actors of their recovery
Take time to explain them their pathology
Using simple words how GDT technologies work and how they are going to help them overcome their pain
Determine your patient's pain chronicity
Evaluating your patient's pain chronicity can help you find the most appropriate treatment protocol and is highly recommended by the Guided DolorClast® Therapy.
Here is how you can determine your patient's chronicity.
Has your patient been feeling pain for less than one month?
In that case, he's in the acute phase of the pathology. GDT recommends using the DolorClast® High Power Laser by itself.
Has your patient been feeling pain between 1 and 3 months?
In that case, he is in the sub-acute phase of the pathology. EMS recommends a combination of laser therapy and shock wave therapy.
Has your patient been feeling pain for more than 3 months?
In that case, he is in the chronic phase of the pathology and his condition can only worsen as months pass by. EMS recommends a combination of the DolorClast® High Power Laser and the DolorClast® Radial Shock Waves together with rehabilitation exercises to obtain long-term results.
Treatment decision tree
EMS has designed a treatment decision tree which will help you decide which protocol best suits your patient's pathology, ensuring not only the most optimal results but will also give your patients a deep understanding of the treatment protocol they are going to receive.
Contraindications check
Before treating your patient, always make sure to ask if they do not have any of the contraindicated factors.
Use of the DolorClast® High Power Laser is contraindicated for:
- Treatment of areas affected by neoplasia
- Treatment of pregnant women
- Treatment over an implanted electrical stimulator (e.g. pacemaker)
Use of the DolorClast® Radial Shock Waves and PiezoClast® is contraindicated for :
- Treatment over air-filled tissue (lung, gut)
- Treatment of pre-ruptured tendons
- Treatment of pregnant women
- Treatment of patients under the age of 18 (except for the treatment of Osgood-Schlatter disease)
- Treatment of patients with blood-clotting disorders (including local thrombosis)
- Treatment of patients treated with oral anticoagulants
- Treatment of tissue with local tumors or local bacterial and/or viral infections
- Treatment of patients treated with cortisone (within the 6-week period following the last local cortisone injection).
Use of the DolorClast® High Power Laser is contraindicated for:
- Treatment of areas affected by neoplasia
- Treatment of pregnant women
- Treatment over an implanted electrical stimulator (e.g. pacemaker)
Use of the DolorClast® Radial Shock Waves and PiezoClast® is contraindicated for :
- Treatment over air-filled tissue (lung, gut)
- Treatment of pre-ruptured tendons
- Treatment of pregnant women
- Treatment of patients under the age of 18 (except for the treatment of Osgood-Schlatter disease)
- Treatment of patients with blood-clotting disorders (including local thrombosis)
- Treatment of patients treated with oral anticoagulants
- Treatment of tissue with local tumors or local bacterial and/or viral infections
- Treatment of patients treated with cortisone (within the 6-week period following the last local cortisone injection).
