How widely have PTs adopted the use of infrared therapy in recent years?

More than 4,300 facilities are now using Anodyne Therapy, including hospitals, universities, home-health agencies, nursing homes, and outpatient therapy clinics. Thousands of therapists have been trained in the clinical protocols, and more than 10,000 physicians have prescribed Anodyne Therapy.

How should PTs evaluate their patient base when considering purchasing an infrared-therapy system?

The questions that therapists should ask are:

1) What conditions do I want to treat using the photo-energy device? If you use trigger-point therapy, one treatment head or pad is fine. To treat foot and leg pain, a device with one therapy array will not be adequate—you need an absolute minimum of four, and eight or more are ideal. The device design you select should be flexible enough to allow you to treat all the conditions you intend to treat.

2) What do I want the photo-energy device to do for my practice? Decide if you want to add new services or enhance the ones you already provide. In light of the Medicare Part B therapy caps, do you want to increase patient volume? Are physicians asking you to provide this service? If so, what types of patients will they be referring to you? If you want to increase cash flow, does the device manufacturer have a trial program and attractive lease options? 

3) Do I do my own marketing? PTs should evaluate if they have the resources to create their own marketing materials. They should also find out if the manufacturer offers a patient-referral program and marketing materials for their use.

4) What are the demographics of my area? Examine the population in your service area to determine if it is predominantly young families, or if are you near a large senior community. This may dictate what new services you want to offer with your photo-energy device.

5) Do the physicians in my service area tend to be skeptical of new technology? If the physicians want clinical proof of outcomes, and they are skeptical of new medical technologies, having published clinical data to ensure they “buy in” to the services you offer will be critical!

Are there care programs created for PTs who provide infrared therapy?

Anodyne Therapy offers marketing templates that can be customized to any care program. Anodyne Therapy is known for the clinical outcomes achieved in patients with painful circulatory problems in the extremities, and for reducing pain and increasing circulation in many other conditions, since the flexible arrays offer the ability to customize the pad placement to the patients’ needs.