The recovery process following surgery or a major health issue can play a major role in a patient’s ability to return to full health quickly and without complication. Now, various new mainstream technologies are making it easier for patients to monitor their own health and have more control over their general recovery.

Here are a few simple technologies you may like to recommend to your patients to aid their recovery following surgery or a major illness.

Wearable activity monitors

Wearable activity devices can be used to access valuable, round-the-clock information about a patient’s key health indicators.

Since the Fitbit first gained mainstream attention in the late 2000s, wearable activity and fitness trackers have continued to grow in popularity. Now, many big-name tech brands have released smartwatches that combine the features of an activity tracker with phone functionality, encouraging more people to adopt the technology.

With many wearable fitness and activity trackers now also providing clinical applications such as blood pressure, exercise, sleep, stress and health tracking, wearable devices can grant patients and practitioners unprecedented access to health information which can be greatly beneficial to monitoring their recovery.

Nutrition apps

Good nutrition is paramount for a smooth recovery, but many patients simply lack the education required to follow a healthy diet.

If patients don’t have the time, budget or ability to seek counselling from a qualified dietician, there are a range of free or affordable apps that can help them get on the right track. Some examples you could recommend include:

• MyFitnessPal – Makes calorie counting easy by allowing you to scan barcodes on product packaging or search their database of more than five million foods to automatically calculate whether your daily calorie target is being met.
• Shopwell – Educates shoppers on how to make healthier choices based on their personalised dietary preferences by scanning products while they’re at the supermarket.
• Meal IQ – If a patient needs to follow a restricted diet, the Meal IQ app makes it easy to find meal recipes based around those specific dietary requirements.
• VNutrition – While specifically designed for a vegan diet, the app can help to identify dietary deficiencies by maintaining a daily food diary.

Innovative exercise equipment

While it’s important for patients to get sufficient rest during the initial recovery period following surgery or illness, when the time comes to reintroduce some exercise into their routine, it’s important that they do it gradually to avoid straining or injury.

Gentle exercise like walking or swimming is always a great starting point, but when they’re ready to reintroduce some light resistance training, innovative kinesis 3D movement equipment like this personal training in Port Melbourne offers, provides progressive functional training possibilities to support specific everyday movement skills.

Mental-health management apps

A patient’s mental health can form a crucial part of a patient’s overall recovery. For many patients, engaging in regular meditation practice can have a positive impact on their mental health by reducing stress, controlling anxiety and improving sleep among other benefits.

While some cases may require professional medical intervention, for patients who are interested in meditation but have never tried it before, apps like Headspace can provide valuable meditation coaching to get them started.