Josh Harris, MD Partners with AMP Recover To Deliver Virtual Care, Manage Protocols, and Improve Outcomes
Josh Harris, MD, an orthopedic surgeon specializing in sports medicine and arthroscopy at Houston Methodist in Texas, is the latest provider to partner with AMP Recover to improve the quality of care for patients and to increase efficiencies among the healthcare team.
“Healthcare has been evolving at an incredibly rapid rate recently,” Dr Harris says. “Musculoskeletal medicine, orthopedic surgery, and specifically hip preservation surgery are leading the way in this evolution. Digital care management is one large facet of this growth that has appealed to our practice for years.”
The coronavirus pandemic and the challenges it presents to providers and patients helped cement Dr. Harris’ belief in the use of digital tools to achieve positive outcomes. “In the situation of COVID, the rehabilitation world was forced to adapt to virtual care. The patients that were in any phase of recovery were then stuck at home, with sometimes minimal guidance. Without rehabilitation guidance, outcomes may be compromised,” he explains. “With virtual care, there is no lapse, care is optimized. Patients have found that this virtual approach may actually even be better, more frequent, more personalized and more adaptive to specific needs and concerns, without the inconvenience of travel and time.”
While COVID helped speed the adoption of virtual care, Dr. Harris believes that tech enabled rehabilitation is here to stay as it benefits both the patients and the provider. “This enhanced efficiency is what modern patients have come to not only seek, but rather expect, out of a high quality healthcare experience. Increased quality at low cost demonstrates high value for everyone involved. The future of rehabilitation certainly will incorporate remote patient management technology to a significant degree.”
Dr. Harris and his team will deliver comprehensive orthopedic rehabilitation protocols through AMP Recover’s end to end digital health platform. “Our relationship with AMP will help extend our clinical reach to patients anywhere. Patients can have their surgery at our facility and then complete their post-operative recovery at home, guided by our therapist, using a wealth of clinical knowledge available through AMP’s database of high-quality post-hip preservation surgery rehabilitation protocols and a highly efficient communication portal for day-to-day care. This team approach is vital to ensure the best outcomes for our patients. Our physical therapy team and I are incredibly excited for the opportunities ahead to optimize outcomes to patients anywhere through the relationship with AMP.”
In addition to the team based approach to rehabilitation, Dr. Harris is bullish on the benefits of AMP Recover’s data collection capabilities throughout the episode of care. “Data collection in recovery has incredible value for patients to ensure optimal rehabilitation,” he says. “Relative to any hip surgery, hip-specific measures are necessary to collect along the entire recovery process, from the recovery room to the lifetime of the hip. These measures include pain, motion, strength, function, sports, and other recreational activities. Clearly, the role of the hip on the rest of the body is vital. Thus, in addition to hip-specific measures, general health, quality of life, activity, function, mental wellness, and return to sport questionnaires are also necessary to be measured and analyzed.”
The AMP Recover platform leverages digital and mobile technologies to virtually deliver high-quality orthopedic rehabilitation. By engaging patients in their recovery and continually monitoring their progress throughout the episode, caregivers receive actionable insights that enable timely interventions and, ultimately, help achieve positive outcomes. With a constant connection between patients and their care teams, healthcare organizations improve patient satisfaction while reducing costs, creating value for all stakeholders.
