AI-powered cognitive priming helps PT clinic improve care and increase profits
Matt Mastenbrook, DPT, clinic manager and attending physical therapist at Baylor Scott & White Institute for Rehabilitation, says one of his first goals as a manager was to differentiate his clinic from the many others in the region. And leading-edge technology would be a key change agent.
THE PROBLEM
Mastenbrook decided to enhance and optimize Baylor’s use of the CogPT platform, developed by vendor Academy Medtech Ventures. He wanted his clinic to be at the forefront of optimizing patient outcomes—and a place where patients wanted to come.
“Patients often feel disengaged with physical therapy and dread coming to exercise or moving in ways they find boring,” Mastenbrook explains. “In addition, many patients lack compliance with home exercises.
“Aspects of traditional physical therapy often feel boring, monotonous, and lacking in personalization,” he continued. “There have been times when I’ve seen physical therapy patients who were clearly bored during sessions of doing the same types of exercises.”
He proposed using technology that streamlines therapists’ workflow and adds a cognitive element to physical therapy sessions, which would improve patient engagement.
“I knew my clinic could provide more value to my patients by offering them new and different challenges while training their bodies to improve strength, balance, endurance and more,” he said.
PROPOSAL
Working collaboratively with the AMV team, it became clear that their technology included all of the key capabilities and functionality Mastenbrook needed to take his clinic to the next level in terms of better patient engagement, optimizing their rehabilitation outcomes and increasing the clinic’s success as a result of these improvements, he said.
“CogPT stands for AMV’s Operating System of Cognition,” he explained. “The technology is built to harness the untapped potential of the brain for human optimization in rehabilitation settings, and the technology bridges the gap for clinicians to be able to do that.
“The platform transcends conventional boundaries in neurocognitive assessment and training to meet the therapeutic goals of rehabilitation clinicians. It provides a user-friendly interface for clinicians for seamless implementation,” he continued.
“Powered by AI and refined by our own clinical expertise, CogPT can address core domains of cognitive function and support the delivery of holistic patient care through features such as a clinical modality, a web-based data portal, a management portal and its companion app.”
He added that it was expected that this technology would allow clinicians to better engage patients through neurocognitive assessments and training modules. In addition, patient outcomes would allow clinicians to effectively tailor care plans for improved cognitive and/or physical function.
“By integrating this type of technology into my workflows and clinic, I knew I could deliver higher quality care with greater efficiency and get patients excited about rehabilitation – and see better outcomes,” he said.
TOOK UP THE CHALLENGE
As a practicing clinician, Mastenbrook has used the technology to care for his patients. One key application for him, for example, has been tapping into CogPT’s dual-tasking capability. That functionality has played a transformative role in practice care by challenging patients to increase their workload, he noted.
“For example, instead of having my patient do tandem balance exercises for a minute and then wait for the timer to finally go off, I now have them do a CogPT dual task, where the patient completes a brain activity module while also receiving instructions on how to maintain physical balance,” he explains.
“Having a platform that allows me to facilitate brain and body training together promotes better functional outcomes for the patient, because we rarely do just one thing at a time,” he said. “It increases patient compliance, engagement and satisfaction scores, while reducing common boredom and increasing our practice attendance.”
Additionally, the technology allows Mastenbrook to train patients in cognitive preparation before performing a physical rehabilitation exercise.
For example, when he has someone lift heavier than before or perform a new exercise, he uses the cognitive priming platform function to mentally engage the patient first, so that the movement quality improves and he can better concentrate on the upcoming movement.
“I did this with a patient who had an ACL reconstruction before he first went under the squat bar to see if he had proper form and technique, and his performance was much better,” he recalls.
RESULTS
For Mastenbrook’s clinic at Baylor Scott & White Institute for Rehabilitation, using the technology has significantly improved the practice in several ways, including improved functional outcomes, patient compliance and attendance.
Since its September 2023 implementation, Mastenbrook’s patient satisfaction scores, clinic attendance and financial return per visit are nearly equal to, or even the highest of, all clinics in his region, he reported.
“During the initial rollout, we looked at the metrics for those who had and had not used the CogPT platform and saw big differences,” he said. “For those who used it in the clinic, our net promoter score increased by 3.27%, patient-reported outcome efficacy improved by 12.3%, and the 123 Dropout Rate (referring to patients who drop out of rehabilitation care after one, two, or three visits) was 26.8% lower.
“The financial impact for users versus non-users was up 3-5%, and in my use case, gross revenue per visit increased 4.3% due to increased clinic efficiency and productivity,” he continued. “This is great considering reimbursements did not change during that time period and Medicare reimbursement actually decreased in 2024.”
An average solo clinician-run PT clinic has about 200 visits per month and $300 in revenue per visit, which equates to about $60,000 in gross revenue per month, he added. Based on the revenue per visit the technology has enabled, Mastenbrook estimates the platform has generated an increase of $1,800-$3,000 in gross revenue since its rollout — and counting.
“Using CogPT in the clinic allows me to better utilize my time in terms of increased productivity and efficiency through improved workflows and patient care,” Mastenbrook said. “In the outpatient setting, therapists often end up double-booked or seeing two or more patients at the same time.
“While this is largely standard and manageable, because patients typically aren’t all actively moving at the same time or able to follow the standard hour-long treatment, it doesn’t allow me to maximize my time or my patients’ time,” he continued.
“The platform allows me to better utilize the full hour-long session with my patients. I keep them engaged, educated, and assisted while working with another patient. I also provide functional benefits while giving them a much-needed break from physical exertion.”
This allows Mastenbrook to provide more expert services and value and charge for these improvements, increasing the number of units billed per visit by 0.05.
ADVICE FOR OTHERS
“Find out what you think is right for you and your clinic’s goals,” Mastenbrook advised. “The amount of technology available for healthcare is growing rapidly and there is so much that can help make things easier and improve the quality of care.
“Using AI-powered technology can lighten the load of what we do so we can better focus on patients,” he added. “At a time when clinicians need to expand their reach as much as possible, the ability to augment and improve care delivery is incredibly important and valuable.”
If you have any doubts, just try it and see what it can do, he continued.
“Whether we like it or not, this is the direction we’re going, so we better be ahead of the curve,” he concluded. “That way, when new technology comes out, we can have a better knowledge base of what it can add or take away from what we’re trying to help with it.”
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