Net­work Group — Phys­io­ther­a­py

Net­work Group Phys­io­ther­a­py

SHN-Physio — spe­cial­ized phys­io­ther­a­pists in the field of hemo­phil­ia and bleed­ing disorders.

In 2013, some phys­io­ther­a­pists joined to form a group. Their aim was to achieve the high­est qual­i­ty of treat­ment and the best exper­tise in the field of haemophil­ia and bleed­ing disorders. One year lat­er the group joined the new­ly formed inter-pro­fes­sion­al SHN. Cur­rent­ly, the group con­sists of 17 phys­io­ther­a­pists.

The major­i­ty are inte­grat­ed in treat­ment teams of the haemophil­ia cen­tres, some mem­bers work in out­pa­tient prac­tices.
We ful­fil our basic mis­sion in the sense of “Best Prac­tice Med­i­cine (BPM)”: These are the pro­fes­sion­al diag­no­sis, the ther­a­py of the mus­cu­loskele­tal sys­tem, as well as the pre­ven­tion of seque­lae. Learn­ing or opti­mis­ing the man­age­ment of one’s own ill­ness is also of great impor­tance for chil­dren and adults with haemophil­ia or a bleed­ing ten­den­cy.

Our phys­io­ther­a­pists and phys­io­ther­a­pists work on dif­fer­ent lev­els:

•  On the patient lev­el, it is impor­tant to accom­pa­ny the par­a­digm shift from inac­tiv­i­ty to activ­i­ty: Until a few years ago, a rather inac­tive lifestyle was the rule in order to reduce the risk of bleed­ing. Today, improved drug ther­a­pies can and should enable patients to be more active. An impor­tant aspect is also the pre­ven­tion of injuries and dis­eases asso­ci­at­ed with lack of exer­cise, such as dia­betes, car­dio­vas­cu­lar prob­lems and obe­si­ty. Pre­ven­tive and health-pro­mot­ing mea­sures for chil­dren and adults with coag­u­la­tion disorders are there­fore a high pri­or­i­ty. For exam­ple, we are involved in projects such as children’s and sports camps.
• On an inter-pro­fes­sion­al lev­el: In coop­er­a­tion with haema­tol­o­gists, we under­take the struc­tured exam­i­na­tion of the mus­cu­loskele­tal sys­tem as part of the annu­al con­trol, as well as the assess­ment of gen­er­al fit­ness and func­tion­al abil­i­ty in every­day life.
  The sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly doc­u­ment­ed find­ings allow changes to be pre­sent­ed and any treat­ment mea­sures to be dis­cussed inter­pro­fes­sion­al­ly and adapt­ed at an ear­ly stage. Annu­al check-ups also offer the oppor­tu­ni­ty for indi­vid­ual activ­i­ty and sports advice dur­ing con­sul­ta­tion hours with chil­dren, their par­ents or the adults. The SHN-Physio has put togeth­er a spe­cial­ist diag­nos­tic pro­ce­dure for this pur­pose (accord­ing to an inter­na­tion­al mod­el).
  The World-Fed­er­a­tion of Haemophil­ia (WFH) rec­om­mends in its guide­lines the exe­cu­tion of annu­al con­trols. There­fore, it is our goal to estab­lish such inter­dis­ci­pli­nary annu­al con­trols in all Swiss haemophil­ia cen­tres in the course of the next years.
• At the intra-pro­fes­sion­al lev­el, the aim is to impart and deep­en spe­cif­ic spe­cial­ist knowl­edge. We sup­port our col­leagues by pro­vid­ing spe­cial­ist infor­ma­tion, assess­ments and spe­cial­ist lit­er­a­ture. SHN-Phys­ios orga­nizes or attends fur­ther train­ing cours­es in Switzer­land and abroad, and is also com­mit­ted to pass­ing on spe­cial­ist knowl­edge to col­leagues out­side the ref­er­ence cen­tres, either through sub­ject-spe­cif­ic basics, direct con­tact or struc­tured han­dover reports.
• On the research lev­el, SHN-Phys­ios takes part in sci­en­tif­i­cal­ly ori­ent­ed fur­ther edu­ca­tion, reads pro­fes­sion­al arti­cles and attends con­gress­es. We are active in projects and stud­ies on the top­ic of haemophil­ia.

Phys­io­ther­a­peu­tic ther­a­py approach­es

The focus is pri­mar­i­ly on symp­to­matic treat­ment and on the reha­bil­i­ta­tion and recon­struc­tion of func­tion and activ­i­ty. There is a clin­i­cal con­sen­sus on inter­na­tion­al plat­forms in the field of hemo­phil­ia: activ­i­ty and train­ing have a pos­i­tive influ­ence on the fre­quen­cy of bleed­ing. In the case of bleed­ing disorders, the bal­ance between injury pre­ven­tion and the high­est pos­si­ble lev­el of phys­i­cal activ­i­ty is there­fore one of the most impor­tant ther­a­peu­tic aspects: This is the chal­lenge we face — togeth­er with our patients.

Our ther­a­py con­tents:

• Man­age­ment of acute bleed­ing and syn­ovi­tis
• Reha­bil­i­ta­tion of hemo­philic arthropa­thy in terms of range of motion, endurance, strength and coor­di­na­tion.
• Advice on activ­i­ty, sport and fit­ness
• Rec­om­men­da­tion regard­ing orthopaedic treat­ment
• Reha­bil­i­ta­tion after sur­gi­cal inter­ven­tions
• Lymph-drainage for poor­ly absorbed joint or mus­cle bleed­ing
• Advice on injury pre­ven­tion

Offer for phys­ios from out­pa­tient prac­tices:
For col­leagues who treat a per­son with a bleed­ing dis­or­der on an out­pa­tient basis, we are hap­py to pro­vide advice. There are leaflets with the most impor­tant char­ac­ter­is­tics of these rare dis­eases which we pass on or, if desired, we will joint­ly look for the best treat­ment option for the patient.

Con­tact us:

E‑Mail: physio@swiss-hemophilia-network.ch

Das fol­gende Inter­view-Video erk­lärt, was die Phys­io­ther­a­pie am Hämophilie-Zen­trum bein­hal­tet: