How One Platform Helped This Golfer Get Back on the Course

Richard (Dick) Bruce loves golf. He’s been playing the sport for more than 40 years. But when he could no longer swing the club without searing shoulder pain, he visited Dr. Robert Eppley.

An MRI showed a massive muscle tear and a rotator cuff injury. Dick and Dr. Eppley talked about combining conventional physical therapy with RecoveryOne shortly after surgery. Dr. Eppley believed that the combination may help accelerate his rehabilitation progress and get him back to playing golf sooner.

What Dick didn’t anticipate was how much he would enjoy the RecoveryOne platform.

“It was like taking my physical therapist with me everywhere I went,” said Dick. “I could access my rehab sessions whenever and wherever I wanted. All I needed to do was log in and start exercising.”

Dick logged in almost every day to access the rehab sessions, remarking at the intuitiveness of the platform.

“If the exercises were too hard, the program would automatically adjust the next rehab session to be slightly easier,” he noted. “In fact, it would even stop allowing me to access the next program and ask me to talk with the doctor if it ‘noticed’ that I was having difficulty. I loved that about RecoveryOne!”

The platform has built in brief self-evaluation questionnaires after each exercise session, which clinically is called patient-reported outcomes measures. These data are used by clinicians to understand how patients are progressing.

“Every time I did a session the platform would ask for feedback,” he said. “Then every few weeks I would get a check point test, which checked my mobility.”

Regular visits with the physical therapist then confirmed Dick’s progress.

“What was interesting to see was that exercises they gave me were limited. The therapist and I noticed that there were more variety of exercises on the RecoveryOne platform.”

Several months later Dick has moved to Bradenton, Fla., and is back to playing golf.

“I’m not 100% yet, but I definitely have most of my mobility back,” he said. “I think that [RecoveryOne] is the future of physical therapy. The ability to do rehabilitation anywhere for significantly less is impressive.”