Patients at Valley View Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation are finding the road to recovery easier now, thanks to a new state-of-the art system to strengthen shoulder, elbow, wrist, hip, knee and ankle joints.
The purchase of the computerized Biodex 2 equipment was made possible with the assistance of the Valley View Health Care Foundation and the Marriner S. Eccles Foundation."We couldn't purchase the Biodex without matching funds," physical therapist Jim Keate said. "We are grateful to the Eccles Foundation and the local health-care foundation for their support."
The Valley View Health Care Foundation is dedicated to improving health care in Iron County. A recent project was to install automatic doors at the physical therapy facility. Total financial support this year for the Biodex and the automatic doors has exceeded $20,000.
The Biodex is both a testing and rehabilitation system. It works on isolated muscles and is used in conjunction with other equipment at the Intermountain Health Care facility.
"With Biodex, we compare the functional abilities of an injured joint with a healthy joint," physical therapist Randy Forsyth explained. "After the patient has been in rehabilitation for a while, we duplicate the test to determine how much the injured joint has improved."
The accuracy of testing is especially beneficial when working with insurance companies and Workers' Compensation. "They want to see that the patient is progressing," Forsyth said, "and we can give it to them in black and white with Biodex."