Virtual physiotherapy for hip and knee osteoarthritis and joint replacement, for Alberta residents. Whether you are managing osteoarthritis, unsure about surgery, preparing for a date already on the calendar, or working through recovery, the program is built around where you are.
Every patient starts with an assessment. From there, your physiotherapist builds an individualized program around where you are: the strength and mobility you are starting from, your surgery date if one is set, the instructions from your surgical team, and the activities you want back, whether that is stairs, walking distance, golf, or travel.
In Alberta, the median wait for orthopaedic surgery is 58.8 weeks, and more than half of people waiting for a hip or knee replacement report their quality of life getting worse during the wait. Alberta Health Services funds post-operative physiotherapy for up to twelve weeks, with no referral and no out-of-pocket cost.
The research is consistent on one point: how strong the quadriceps is going into surgery predicts how well function recovers afterwards, at three months, six months, and a year. Prehabilitation has been shown to reduce complications and improve function in the first six months after surgery, and to meaningfully improve how people feel going into it. The effect is real and modest, honestly stated: a measurable edge in the window you can control.
Research on patient satisfaction after knee replacement also shows that when people are unhappy a year on, the most common reason is not the surgery itself but the gap between what they expected to be able to do and what they can do, with kneeling, squatting, and walking distance topping the list. Setting expectations honestly, and training for your specific goals, is part of the work.
Figures from published wait-time reporting, peer-reviewed cohort studies, and Alberta Health Services program information.
This program sits directly on top of Lisa Jasper’s clinical and research career. Her PhD thesis at the University of Alberta measured physical activity in older adults following total knee arthroplasty, the exact population this program serves. Her published research includes a scoping review of risk factors for revision of total knee arthroplasty in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders and work on supporting rehabilitation of rural patients receiving total knee arthroplasty in ACR Open Rheumatology.
She has practiced physiotherapy since 1995, and she spent a decade coordinating the University of Alberta’s rural satellite physiotherapy training program, with remote delivery of care among her named research interests. Virtual delivery of hip and knee rehabilitation is the intersection of the two: the patient population she has studied and published on, delivered through the model she has spent years teaching and researching.
Program details and fees are covered on the free 15-minute program-information call, where we can also point you to what your extended health plan may reimburse. Fees are receiptable as physiotherapy services with a licensed physiotherapist.
Our clinical services are available to Alberta residents; physiotherapy is provincially regulated, and other provinces will follow as licensure is added.
Or email lisa@myhealthupdated.com