Virtual Care Clinician Spotlight: Alana Lazareck-Devlin

Alana is a Registered Physiotherapist, Pelvic Health Physiotherapist & the Prairies Pelvic Health Lead at Lifemark.

With many more people seeking out virtual treatment with physiotherapists because of the pandemic, demand for Virtual Care services has grown dramatically across the country. As of January 2021, hundreds of thousands of Virtual Care sessions have been completed at Lifemark.

We asked Alana Lazareck-Devlin, a Pelvic Health Physiotherapist at Lifemark Physiotherapy Crowchild Twin Arena in Calgary, to share some of her insights about Virtual Care.

Read more about how Virtual Care has helped Alana reach more patients, collaborate on treatment plans with other therapists, and continue to provide high quality care by better understanding the environment that her patients are in.

How has the way you treat patients changed with Virtual Care?

Virtual Care has provided me with the ability to reach patients in more remote physical locations. Additionally, it has allowed me to collaborate with other therapists and co-treat with less experienced therapists to provide a learning experience as well as maximizing treatment benefits to the patient.

What has been the reception from patients on Virtual Care?

Patients have responded in very positive ways and were pleasantly surprised with the experience and therapeutic benefits they received. Much of what we do is education and this can be provided by virtual means without any deficits.

What has surprised you the most about treating patients virtually?

What surprised me most is how much education I actually provide in my treatment session and how much I was able to guide and queue patients using virtual means. It provides a wonderful alternative for people with distance, transportation, or mobility issues.

How have you adapted your treatment plans to work in a virtual setting?

I have now made all of my patient information, education, and exercises digitally available. It has also made me more aware of using queuing efficiently.

Do you have any favourite stories or anecdotes so far about Virtual Care?

Using Virtual Care, I had the fortune of seeing women feed their children and it was really wonderful to be able to see the positioning they chose when they were in the comfort of their own home.

I was able to correct feeding positions that were causing a woman low back and neck pain very quickly and she laughed when I imitated her feeding posture on camera to make her see how detrimental it was.

To learn more about how a Pelvic Health Physiotherapist can help, watch Alana’s video.

Read more about how we’re supporting patients with Virtual Care by visiting our Virtual Care services page. If you’re looking to schedule an appointment, you can book one online or find a Lifemark therapist near you.