March 13, 2023

Breaking Barriers to Rehabilitation Services in Vietnam One Click At A Time

Breaking barriers to rehabilitation services in Vietnam one click at a time

In Vietnam, more than 64% of the population live in rural areas 1 significantly limiting access to appropriate rehabilitation care. This is particularly true for people with disabilities who have difficulty travelling long distances. Country estimates report fewer than one physical therapist per 10,000 people, and only 2% of Vietnamese children receive rehabilitation care when needed 2. By contrast, 80% of the population uses a smartphone 3. Even families with very low incomes typically have access to a mobile device. 

With its background in innovative humanitarian response and rehabilitation expertise, Humanity & Inclusion has designed the OpenTeleRehab software as an adaptive solution to ensure both access and quality care for rehabilitation service users facing these obstacles.

OpenTeleRehab is described by HI as an open source, multidisciplinary telerehabilitation software that allows its users to access tailor-made rehabilitation treatment plans adapted to a variety of conditions. It enables rehabilitation professionals to provide continued support and follow-up via chat or video communication, including plan adherence and goal achievement tracking.

“Patients are taught in-service by their therapist how to use the patient mobile application, then, once they are home they can access their custom treatment plan by smartphone. The treatment plan can include exercises, information and educational material and questionnaires. Therapists can organise regular follow-up audio or video calls and track patient progress and adherence to the plan,” said Martin Jacobs, HI Telerehabilitation Project Manager.

TFA was delighted to contribute as a project partner through the work of our wonderful volunteer Speech Pathologist Shing Yee Chai, who developed a series of voice and speech exercises that are now available via the open access telerehabilitation library. We are confident that these valuable resources will support many Vietnamese people in their recovery. 

[1] https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.RUR.TOTL.ZS?locations=VN

[2] https://www.unicef.org/vietnam/reports/children-disabilities-viet-nam

[3] https://www.talkvietnam.com/2017/11/smartphone-users-cover-84-of-vn-population/

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