There are many challenges in the process of recovery of a brain injury. In addition to the actual work of therapy, additional constraints are often imposed. Clinical therapy can be limited both in terms of weekly visit time and the duration of care. Physical disabilities also pose challenges when trying to get to a clinic visit. Additionally, transitioning from one care setting to another often means “starting over”. Introducing new tools and a new clinician may mean a delay in getting into a routine.
A Boston based startup, Constant Therapy, is addressing these challenges by enabling users to continue their personalized therapy programs with limited interruption.
What is Constant Therapy?
Constant Therapy is an iPad application that provides tools for continuous and personalized
therapy to people with cognitive, language, communication and learning disorders. Therapy plans tailored to each user’s needs are created using Constant Therapy’s library of 50 different tasks that span up to 10 levels of difficulty. As patients show progress, they can advance to new tasks and levels of difficulty.
Constant Therapy has been designed to be used independently at home or under the care of a clinician. The application can be accessed on an iPad 24 hours a day, 7 days a week allowing users to engage in therapy activities at their desired time. With data stored in the cloud, clinicians can monitor progress and adjust therapy plans at any time.
To date, Constant Therapy has delivered over 2 million therapy activities to patients at home and at institutions such as Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital and MossRehab Aphasia Center.
Constant Therapy – Science-based Research
Dr. Swathi Kiran, an expert in aphasia rehabilitation and brain plasticity, and a Professor at Boston University’s Sargent College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences, is a co-founder of Constant Therapy. She also serves as the Research Director of the Aphasia Resource Center and the Director of the Aphasia Research Laboratory at Sargent College, where she has been testing the groundbreaking technology for more than a year.
In a recently completed study, researchers examined the effectiveness of a therapy program for stroke survivors that was delivered using Constant Therapy on an iPad. In this study, 50 participants practiced language/cognitive therapy exercises at a clinical setting as well as at home. Therapy outcomes for patients who received the structured language/cognitive therapy at home and in the clinic were compared with patients who only received therapy in the clinic but did not practice therapy tasks at home.
While Boston University’s final research findings are expected to be published this summer, preliminary results are highly encouraging. Early indications suggest that patients are motivated to do home-based exercises, thus increasing the amount of time and attention focused on rehabilitation. Additionally early results indicate that patients improve in language and some areas of cognition with a home-based therapy program.
What Users Are Saying About Constant Therapy
Clinicians are enthusiastically touting the benefits of Constant Therapy. Darlene Williamson of the Stroke Comeback Center had this to say, “Constant Therapy knocked my socks off. It is the future of rehabilitation because it allows people to work independently, without the big cost of having individualized effort.”
Patients are also finding the value of Constant Therapy. Mary Borelli of Massachusetts shares her story of how Constant Therapy helped her to regain her speech and improved her quality of life. To learn more about Mary click here to read her story or here to watch her video.
Constant Therapy is available on the iPad through the App Store. To get started with Constant Therapy please click here. To connect with a Constant Therapy representative please click here.