"When it comes to physical and speech language therapy, how willing are patients to deviate from traditional tools to embrace virtual therapy aids?" According to a study by The Learning Corp, "Nearly 90% of this patient population are interested in using apps as part of their recovery." Online medical practices could be the way of the future with everything else seeming to go digital.

America's Openness to Virtual Medical Practices

The Learning Corp included 2,000 people in its survey who have either undergone either physical or speech therapy themselves or been the caregiver of a loved one in therapy. 90% of respondents had only had experience in traditional forms of therapy. The remaining 10% had experience therapy apps.

That doesn't mean that the 90% of respondents with only traditional therapy experience would be against exploring potential virtual medical practices options. Nearly all respondents in The Learning Corp's study (in both physical and speech therapy) said that they had issues with the therapy they underwent. One of their common issues was transportation to and from sessions. 35% of respondents missed at least one session due to travel issues.

This may be why 96% of this survey's respondents said that they can see the advantages that virtual medical practices could provide to those needing physical or speech therapy. "Time commitment and scheduling (66% of physical therapy patients and 57% of speech language therapy patients) and not having to travel (66% of physical therapy patients and 59% of speech language patients) being the top draws," said The Learning Corp.

“'Patients are looking for tools that will alleviate many of their pain points with traditional therapy, so it’s vital that health care innovators are creating solutions that make clinically proven care more accessible,' said Michael Evers, CEO of The Learning Corp. "Like all patients, those in physical and speech therapy should be focused on their health instead of worrying about how they’ll be able to get the medical support they need to recover. Virtual therapy apps help eliminate several barriers of care by delivering it more directly while driving down costs.”

Last year, according to AudienceSCAN, 66.5% of Physical Therapy Patients took action after seeing a TV commercial. This is encouraging news for advertisers since 67.5% of these patients watch a minimum of three hours of TV every day. Additionally, these patients actively use a variety of devices that they can view ads on and potentially use for telemedicine purposes, including Android smartphones, iPhones, iPads and Android tablets. Last year, Physical Therapy Patients were driven to action by email ads, ads they either received via text or saw on their mobile digital apps and saw in either digital or print newspapers and magazines.

AudienceSCAN data is available for your applications and dashboards through the SalesFuel API. In addition, AdMall contains industry profiles on physical/​occupational therapists and specialty hospitals, as well as lead lists at the local level. Media companies, sales reps and agencies can access this data with a subscription to AdMall from SalesFuel.