Scoliosis: a sensor for better bracing treatment

Scoliosis: a sensor for better bracing treatment

“Ever since 2010, we at Isico have been using Thermobrace, a heat sensor that is applied to the brace in order to establish how much it is actually being worn. We see this as a way of fostering a better doctor-patient relationship, as well as a means of collecting real-life data that can be used to optimise the use of the brace”

explains Dr Sabrina Donzelli, Isico physiatrist and author of a study entitled “In defense of adolescents: They really do use braces for the hours prescribed, if good help is provided. Results from a prospective everyday clinic cohort using thermobrace”, published in the journal Scoliosis. “Our implementation of this heat sensor, which is the most suitable of those currently available on the market, has been a gradual process” she says. “Initially, we applied it to the braces of just a handful of patients, precisely because until recently literature opinion on the use of this kind of instrument was divided. We have actually found that it helps to strengthen the doctor-patient relationship, as it allows us to make therapeutic choices on the basis of real-life data obtained from the sensor, and these data can thus be used to optimise the use of the brace”.

The most surprising finding was that the patients who have the highest number of prescribed brace-wearing hours were the ones who showed the best compliance with the treatment. It emerged that 45% of the patients used the brace for the number of hours prescribed, or for just an hour less,  while 55% claimed to be wearing the brace for a number of hours that was very close to the actual number (a difference of 1 hour at most), and 60% showed 90% compliance.

Patients and parents tend to overestimate compliance, hence the reason for developing an objective assessment based on the use of heat sensors.

Whereas the authors of other studies set out only to verify actual compliance with the prescribed number of brace-wearing hours, our aim was to test the sensor as a tool for improving clinical practice. Accordingly, we have never used the sensor without a patient’s knowledge. We do not see Thermobrace as a means of “checking up” on patients, but rather as a tool for collecting real-life data that can be used to optimise treatments.

Indeed, these sensors enable doctors to be more precise as they endeavour to make the best clinical decisions. Along with brace quality and some disease factors, compliance is a key element in the efficacy of brace treatment: “In patients known to comply reliably with the treatment, we should be able to get a much more accurate idea of the true effectiveness of braces” added Dr Donzelli.

0 replies

Leave a Reply

Want to join the discussion?
Feel free to contribute!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *