AIIMS physiotherapy department to get robot-assisted facilities, to help in faster recovery of patients

The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)’s physiotherapy department will procure a robot-assisted therapy that will help in early rehabilitation of patients and contribute to their faster recovery. This announcement was made on Sunday on the concluding day of the seventh International Conference of Physical Therapy – AIIMS 2018. Attended by more than 600 delegates from different parts of India and abroad, the two-day conference was inaugurated by Minister of State for Health Ashwini Kumar Choubey on Saturday. In developed countries, robotics are the latest tools in physical therapy and rehabilitation. Experts said physiotherapy colleges have mushroomed across the country and are not as per the standards and are unable to offer quality education.

Dr Prabhat Ranjan, a senior physiotherapist, said the inclusion of robots in ICUs will be a game-changer especially for early rehabilitation of both the upper and the lower limbs of the patients. People suffering from the after-effects of strokes, spinal cord injuries, trauma and other neurological and orthopaedic conditions would benefit from the new technology as it would improve their physical, mental and sensory functions.

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Choubey said the government will soon pass an Allied and Healthcare Professions Bill, 2018 and appealed to the opposition to support it as the act would benefit patients at large. He underlined the significance of physiotherapists in the government’s Ayushman Bharat scheme.

Nirmal Kumar, organising secretary, said, “With India’s ever-growing aging population, it is inevitable for the physiotherapists to keep themselves abreast of latest trends and innovation while working with healthcare professionals and patients to provide best treatment for early rehabilitation.”

In developed countries, robotics are the latest tools in physical therapy and rehabilitation, Ranjan said. Physiotherapists are quite upbeat after the cabinet approved the Allied and Healthcare Professions Bill, 2018 that seeks to regulate and standardise education, training and services of healthcare professionals including physiotherapists, he said. Dr Sanjiv K Jha, president of Indian Association of Physiotherapists, said, “The bill when it comes in force will regularise the system of registration, recognition, standard, quality of education in physiotherapy and will be able to check the unprofessional practice/quackery in physiotherapy by untrained professional.”

(With PTI inputs)