Monday, June 25, 2007

Our friends over at Evidence in Motion posted in their blog about a gentleman that swears he has invented a machine that automates physical therapy. Called the HYDROT-pt5, this machine:

..delivers automated alternating Hot, Neutral Zone, Cold, Intermittent Compression, and Directional Massage… back to back, through a single pad automatically.

Wow, isn't that how PT was practiced in 1980 before we realized all it did was make the patient feel better for 1 hour? Here's the machine itself:

The "inventor's" website is totally devoid, obviously, of any literature to back up his claims from a Cleburne Times-Review article that the machine is:
...capable of speeding up healing and reducing pain in less than a third of the time it normally takes...

The website does have a "Peer Review" link. However, this presents us only with testimonials. A few have "Dr." before their names, so this must warrant the "Peer" aspect of Peer Review.

As Physical Therapists, we must watch our backyards for snake oil salesman like this and educate the public and the medical community as to what real physical therapy is, and maybe more important, what it is not.

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