PORi Partners with KITABOO to Deliver Online Courses to Medical Practitioners

The Physiological Oncology Rehabilitation Institute offers continuing education courses in oncology rehabilitation for speech language pathologists (speech therapists), physical therapists (physiotherapists), occupational therapists, physical and occupational therapy assistants. They combine evidence-based research and in-depth scientific understanding of the physiological impact of cancer and its related treatments to form the foundation of the educational curriculum that they offer. 

The Mission

Their mission is to elevate the practice of oncology rehabilitation. The specialist courses that they offer are a defining step towards accomplishment of their mission. They aim to offer practical clinical skill-set necessary to treat and nurture patients and help them lead a healthy life. 

The Body Systems Approach

It is important the oncology rehabilitation process carefully addresses the patient’s body systems that are affected by cancer and the treatment. Considering that this approach is crucial, the Oncology Rehabilitation Institute has designed its courses to help the learners understand the intricate details of the impact of cancer and its treatment on all of the patient’s body systems. The patient management algorithms and treatment protocols offer optimal resolution of functional impairment. 

Setting the Standard of Care

Cancer Rehabilitation is not taught in PT/OT/SLP curricula. The Oncology Rehabilitation Institute aims to set the standard of care for cancer patients and ensure they provide all the necessary knowledge and skills to their learners and empower them to effectively treat patients and drive a change in their lives. The primary goal is to make oncology rehabilitation the norm for all cancer patients. 

The Core Course Modules

These courses form the foundation in oncology rehabilitation. To ensure the learners have a strong grasp of information and knowledge required in a clinical setting, these courses re-emphasize on some of the educational material already covered. 

There is a significant emphasis on lab sessions and virtual lab sessions including live or video patient presentations. End of each module leads to an assessment test where the learners are provided a live-virtual treatment session. They encourage remote learners to have a lab partner available during the course modules to ensure effective learning at home. 

Disease Site Speciality Courses

These courses focus on specific oncology diagnosis and offer the knowledge and procedures to start the treatment of the patients. The three courses included in the disease site speciality course module are – 

• ​Breast Cancer Rehabilitation
• Head & Neck Cancer Rehabilitation
• Pelvic Cancer & Lower Extremity Rehabilitation

The breast cancer rehabilitation course curriculum includes yoga-based interventions for breast cancer and dry needling in the BRCA population. Head and neck cancer rehabilitation course emphasizes on the management of dysphagia in HNCA patients. The pelvic cancer and lower extremity rehabilitation course instructs learners about the clinical techniques for effective delivery of therapy to patients in any phase of their cancer treatment. 

Therapy Intervention Course

This course focuses on exercise prescription and neurologic interventions to address chemotoxicity symptoms. The chemotoxicity and cancer exercise management courses address the vestibular rehab in the oncology population. 

The Adjunct Course Modules

These courses are not a part of the core curriculum. However, they are ancillary courses for learners and therapists who want to delve more deeply into the courses they have already completed or gain specialist knowledge in a less common area of cancer diagnosis and treatment. 

Oncology Rehabilitation should be an integral part of the scope of practice for therapists and speech language pathologists. It needs to be implemented responsibly, safely and effectively, with the standard of care consistently given prime importance. The specialized courses offered provide the necessary knowledge and skills to the learners to be able to positively impact the patient’s health. 

PORi Elevates the Approach to Oncology Rehabilitation with KITABOO

The success of any curriculum depends on its delivery as much as it depends on the course material. Oncology Rehabilitation Institute designs learning programs of supreme quality with up-to-date information and procedures backed by in-depth scientific understanding. To create a long lasting impact with their learning program, they required a robust content publishing platform that could serve their mission. 

They partnered with KITABOO to expand their mission digitally. The delivery of their educational courses was powered by KITABOO. Its intuitive and user-friendly interface makes it easy for learners to skim through the course material. Learners can collaborate with educators and peers to discuss the techniques they learn to master the skills. The platform enabled PORi to enrich the content with multimedia elements, adding to the interactivity factor and making the learning experience engaging. 

The eBooks included interactive assessment solutions and educational activities to help learners apply their knowledge. The high quality visuals and videos in the course module demanded a seamless delivery mechanism for better results. Since KITABOO is compatible with all operating systems and devices, the Oncology Rehabilitation Institute could enable the learners to access the course material on the device of their choice. 

Since the launch of their new curriculum in 2018, they have delivered their course material and trained over thousands of physical therapists, occupational therapists and speech language pathologists in the USA, Canada, Singapore, Europe, South Africa, and the Middle East.