Advantages of Using Evidence-based AI Driven Technology Platforms for Cognitive and Speech Therapy to Increase Patient Outcomes and Improve Clinician Productivity

Research Objectives: The initiative was to determine the impact of using the Constant Therapy program on patient outcomes with patients seen under Elara Caring’s home therapy approach. Specifically, what benefits may patients gain from use of technology in cognitive and speech therapy when facing significant clinician shortages leading to difficulty in seeing patients face-to-face at an increased frequency. It also evaluated Constant Therapy’s effectiveness in enhancing clinician efficiency to deliver care.

Design: A retrospective study design that collected data from June 2023 through January 2024. Difference in patient performance and clinician efficiency was analyzed using the data collected.

Setting: This study analyzes clinician efficiency based on subjective reports and uses data collected from home-based sessions completed with an SLP present in addition to Constant Therapy’s “home exercise” program, which patients completed independently.

Participants: Subjects include adults with speech, language, and/or cognitive-linguistic deficits resulting from various neurological disorders. Additional subjects included the patients’ SLPs.

Interventions: Interventions included exercises from the Constant Therapy program. Specific exercises selected for each adult patient were determined by an SLP and based on performance during intake evaluation.

Main Outcome Measures: Outcome measures included the number of therapy hours provided via use of Constant Therapy, percent gain in task accuracy, and percent gain in task latency (processing speed). The outcomes measured in relation to clinician efficiency were subjectively reported by the clinicians and highlighted the time saved in documentation, session preparation, and home exercise program creation/management.

Results: From June 2023 to January 2024, 115 patients enabled with the Constant Therapy home exercise program independently completed 92,117 exercises and 1,190 hours of additional therapy. Patients correspondingly demonstrated an average increase in task accuracy of 17%, and an average increase in task latency percentile of 54% over the first three weeks of the program. During this time, Elara clinicians documented time savings of 10-15 minutes per patient, totaling 1-1.5 hours daily for a six-patient caseload.

Conclusions: Constant Therapy significantly enhanced clinician efficiency when delivering care, increased the amount of therapy patients received and positively affected patient performance in speech therapy sessions. Its integration into clinician-led care effectively helped patients achieve cognitive and speech therapy goals.

Author(s) Disclosures: The authors of this study are affiliated with Elara Caring and Constant Therapy, respectively. Elara Caring purchased the Constant Therapy Enterprise program during the timeframe of the study.