Taking Telehealth Home After Surgery

Rotator cuff tears are the leading cause of shoulder disability in adults and result in $12 billion in medical bills annually. Physical rehabilitation is critical for patient recovery. Pitt and ēlizur, a supplier of orthopaedic products and services, are partnering to create CuffLink, a telehealth system for at-home rehabilitation post-surgery. 

The device combines ēlizur’s shoulder strengthening and stabilization machine that assists the patient in kinetic exercise without damaging or overusing the rotator cuff post-operatively with Pitt’s motion-tracking software system, called interACTION. CuffLink will track patients’ progress, record pain levels, and host a clinician portal helping to safely move early rehabilitation to the patient’s home and shifting insurer-capped physical therapy visits to later in the recovery timeline.

Kevin Bell, assistant professor of bioengineering at Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering, who leads a multidisciplinary team of experts from orthopaedic surgery, physical therapy, and health information management, says that partnerships like this bridge the gap between technology and the patient accessing it.