Pune: City-based Sancheti Hospital launched Pune OA-Knee Strategy (PKS), which is combined established physiotherapy principles with an innovative brace based on the latest technology for knee osteoarthritis, on Saturday.
On the sidelines of a conference on recent advances in physiotherapy and management of knee arthritis, this information was given by Dr Parag Sancheti, Chairman and Managing Director of Sancheti Hospital. Dr Anil Bhave, Clinical Director at Orthopaedic Rehabilitation Centre, also launched a brace developed by him.
Dr Parag Sancheti said that knee osteoarthritis is the major orthopaedic disease that is rapidly becoming a major healthcare problem.
“Osteoarthritis is the wear-and-tear type of arthritis that commonly affects the knees of older people. The disease frequently affects one side of the knee more than the other. The PKS Strategy and Bhave’s knee brace for osteoarthritis will help reduce pain and disability by using a multimodal approach towards controlling knee osteoarthritis. This will definitely improve patient’s ability to get around and help increase the distance they can walk comfortably,” said Sancheti.
Dr Anil Bhave added that with an increase in number of osteoarthritis cases, it is an urgent need to tackle it early.
“We cannot allow our elderly population to become disabled by osteoarthritis when a comprehensive strategy to control it is available. This new brace will be used primarily for Stage 1 and 2 patients so that Stage 3 and 4, where knee replacement is the only option, can be avoided. Although this may not completely avoid surgeries for all, this is certainly likely to bring down the number of surgeries required. The new technology has the potential to relieve millions of people across the world from pain and disability and we should use it optimally in Pune,” said Bhave.
While talking about the brace, Dr Bhave added that the brace has sensors that calculate the knee range of motion and how much exercise the patient needs.
“It has a stimulator inbuilt into it that provide Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation (NEMS) to activate weakened muscles and make them stronger. It also has the provision to connect to a mobile app, which can help a remote healthcare provider to supervise the therapy and activity level and provide advice. The data is all synced in the cloud and can be used for research purposes to constantly improve the process,” said Dr Bhave.
Dr Sancheti added that the entire programme will be synchronised by a mobile app of Pune Knee Strategy, which will focus on patient empowerment through education and update on latest and validated treatment plans, assessment of his or her own osteoarthritis status and functional status and supervision and advice from healthcare professionals from Sancheti Hospital. The app and the details of the strategy will be soon available on Sancheti website.
