PTKids
Teletherapy
A new service that brings specialized pediatric physical therapy home, so geography, scheduling, and access stop deciding which children get care.
The clinic is too far. The hours don't work. The waitlist is too long.
"How can we use telemedicine to provide families who have limited access and availability with appropriate specialized pediatric physical therapy services?"
Finding providers that specialize in children with physical disabilities is a challenge in any city. Analysis of thirteen metropolitan areas confirmed it: in Kansas City, Memphis, Toledo, and Columbus, there were zero independent outpatient providers specializing in pediatric physical therapy for children with physical disabilities. Of those cities that did have providers, only half offered evening appointments and just ten percent had Saturday hours.
Physical therapy for children with conditions like cerebral palsy, clubfoot, limb differences, or scoliosis is not a short-term fix. These children need specialist care, often multiple times a week, for years. When COVID-19 forced providers to switch to telemedicine, it exposed a gap that had always existed: a child's access to care had always depended too much on where their family happened to live.
The research happened inside the sessions.
The researcher's two children have physical disabilities and receive regular physical therapy through the school district. When COVID-19 forced those sessions onto Google Hangout, that became the research site. Multiple live therapy sessions were observed, and an in-depth interview was conducted with the therapist to understand her care plan, clinical goals, and what the remote format was making impossible.
Co-design workshops with the children, using physical household objects and handmade exercise cards, explored what a purpose-built home therapy kit could look like in practice.
What the research made clear was specific and actionable. The therapist could demonstrate exercises on screen, but she couldn't manipulate a child's foot, hip, or leg to correct positioning. She couldn't conduct stretching or massage. Without standardized equipment at home, she was improvising with laundry baskets and folded blankets, then hoping parents could interpret what they were watching. The research didn't start with technology. It started with what was failing inside the session and worked backwards from there.
A service, not just an app.
PTKids Teletherapy is a three-component service designed around the real gaps the research uncovered: a customized physical therapy kit shipped to the family's home, a secure clinical app built for remote sessions, and parent-guided exercise assignments that reinforce the work between appointments.
The physical therapy kit is customized by the therapist for each child's specific needs, numbered so children can immediately identify objects on screen, and covered by insurance, shipped directly to the family's home. The secure desktop and mobile app gives therapists a proper clinical environment for remote sessions — replacing insecure consumer tools like Google Hangout — and includes care plan management, appointment scheduling, and instruction card uploads.
The third component addresses the thing that made the therapist most frustrated: the gap between sessions. Exercise assignments pair physical kit items with instruction cards and video guides. For families with Alexa, exercises can be delivered as voice-guided sessions, removing the need for a parent to read instructions while simultaneously coaching a child through movements. The model was built on what pilot programs at UC Davis and Sydney Children's Hospital had already demonstrated: telemedicine works when parents are equipped as real partners in their child's care.
The PTKids physical therapy kit: customized per patient, numbered for in-session identification, and shipped to the family's home covered by insurance.
The PTKids physical therapy kit: customized per patient, numbered for in-session identification, and shipped to the family's home covered by insurance.