TherapyCon ’26 Takeaways: RTM, HEPs & Patient Adherence

TherapyCon ’26 gave us the opportunity to spend several days talking directly with physical therapists, rehabilitation teams, and organizations thinking about what patient care should look like beyond the walls of the clinic.

Some were already familiar with Remote Therapeutic Monitoring (RTM). Others were just beginning to explore how RTM could fit into their clinical workflows. But across many of the conversations, similar questions kept coming up.

How do we keep patients engaged between visits? How do we improve adherence to a home exercise program? How do clinicians know what is happening when the patient leaves the clinic? And how can technology support those goals without forcing therapists into a one-size-fits-all approach?

Those conversations reinforced something we think about often at EverEx: extending care beyond the clinic is not simply about giving patients more technology. It is about giving clinicians the flexibility, visibility, and workflows they need to support each patient between appointments.

What Did Physical Therapists Talk About at TherapyCon ’26?

One of the most valuable parts of TherapyCon was hearing how different rehabilitation teams approach patient engagement and home exercise programs today.

We spoke with therapists at different stages of their RTM journey, from those learning about Remote Therapeutic Monitoring for the first time to those looking for ways to make their existing processes more connected.

The conversations frequently came back to three areas:

• Keeping patients engaged with their care plan between visits
• Understanding whether patients are actually following their prescribed exercises
• Giving clinicians enough flexibility to personalize a home exercise program around the individual patient

Those challenges become even more pronounced in certain specialties. Pediatric physical therapy was one of the clearest examples.

Why Is HEP Adherence Challenging in Pediatric Physical Therapy?

Several pediatric physical therapists we spoke with shared a challenge that goes beyond simply asking whether a patient completed their home exercise program.

For pediatric patients, adherence often requires participation from a parent or caregiver.

A therapist can create the right plan, demonstrate the exercises, and explain why they matter, but much of the work still happens after the family leaves the clinic. If the parent is unable to consistently help the child complete those exercises, maintaining adherence can become difficult.

How can clinicians better support patient and caregiver engagement between visits?

Remote Therapeutic Monitoring can help create greater visibility into what is happening outside the clinic. Rather than waiting until the next appointment to understand how a patient is progressing, RTM gives care teams another way to stay connected to patient activity, symptoms, engagement, and adherence throughout the plan of care.

For pediatric care, that can also mean creating a more continuous connection between the therapist, patient, and caregiver.

Why HEP Flexibility Matters

Another point we heard from pediatric PTs was that traditional HEP libraries do not always include the exercises they need.

Pediatric rehabilitation can be highly individualized. What works for one patient may not make sense for another, and therapists may use exercises or activities specific to a child’s condition, developmental needs, goals, environment, or interests.

That creates limitations when a digital home exercise program only allows clinicians to choose from a fixed exercise library.

This was an important conversation for us because flexibility is something we have intentionally built into EverEx. Clinicians can upload custom exercises when the exercise they need is not already available within the platform. Our team also takes exercise requests and continues expanding the EverEx HEP library each month.

How Can RTM Support Patient Adherence Between Visits?

Patient adherence is one of the most common challenges in rehabilitation.

A home exercise program may be clinically appropriate, but its value depends heavily on whether the patient understands it, follows it, and continues participating between appointments.

This is where Remote Therapeutic Monitoring can add another layer to the rehabilitation workflow. RTM can help clinicians maintain visibility into patient engagement between visits and identify when someone may be falling behind on their plan of care.

Instead of discovering at the next appointment that a patient has not been following their HEP, clinicians can have more information available throughout the episode of care. That visibility can help teams determine where additional communication, education, or intervention may be needed.

The goal is not simply to measure adherence for the sake of collecting data. It is to give clinicians information they can use to support the patient throughout their recovery.

How Can RTM Support Better Patient Outcomes?

Better patient outcomes are not created by technology alone.

They depend on the relationship between the clinician and patient, the quality of the treatment plan, patient participation, and the ability to respond when progress does not go as expected.

Remote Therapeutic Monitoring can help support that process by giving clinicians more visibility into the portion of rehabilitation that happens outside scheduled appointments. When clinicians can better understand patient adherence, symptoms, activity, and progress between visits, they have more information available when making decisions about the plan of care.

For rehabilitation organizations, the opportunity is to move from a model where clinicians primarily see what happens during an appointment to one where they can maintain a more continuous view of the patient’s rehabilitation journey.

That is what we mean when we talk about care beyond the clinic.

Making RTM Fit Into Existing Workflows

Clinical value is only part of the RTM conversation.

TherapyCon also came immediately after the announcement of our new partnership and integration with Raintree Systems, another step toward making RTM easier to incorporate into the technology and workflows rehabilitation organizations already use.

That matters because an RTM program should not create unnecessary complexity for clinicians, administrators, or billing teams.

Patient engagement, HEP management, monitoring, documentation, billing, and the EMR are ultimately parts of the same workflow. The more connected those processes become, the easier it is for organizations to operationalize Remote Therapeutic Monitoring without creating another isolated system for their teams to manage.

What Does the Future of Care Beyond the Clinic Look Like?

Our biggest takeaway from TherapyCon ’26 was not that every rehabilitation organization approaches RTM the same way. It was almost the opposite.

Different specialties have different patients, workflows, challenges, and clinical needs.

A pediatric physical therapist working with a child and their parents may approach engagement very differently from an orthopedic therapist helping an adult recover from surgery. A pelvic health clinician may need a different HEP and communication strategy than a therapist treating a neurological condition.

Technology needs to provide enough flexibility to support those differences.

For EverEx, that means continuing to build around the realities we heard directly from therapists at TherapyCon: flexible home exercise programs, better visibility into adherence, stronger patient engagement, connected RTM workflows, and tools that help clinicians extend care between appointments.

Continuing the Conversations From TherapyCon ’26

Thank you to everyone who stopped by the EverEx booth, shared how your organization is approaching rehabilitation today, and asked questions about where Remote Therapeutic Monitoring could fit.

The conversations we had at TherapyCon ’26 will continue to inform how we think about HEP development, patient adherence, caregiver engagement, clinical workflows, and the role RTM can play in supporting patient care beyond the clinic.

For organizations just beginning to explore RTM, the first question does not have to be, “How do we launch an RTM program?” It can be much simpler.

Where are patients losing connection with their care between visits, and what would help our clinicians support them?

That is a conversation worth continuing.

Frequently Asked Questions About RTM and HEPs

What is Remote Therapeutic Monitoring in physical therapy?

Remote Therapeutic Monitoring, or RTM, allows eligible rehabilitation providers to monitor aspects of a patient’s therapy and engagement outside traditional in-person appointments. RTM can give care teams greater visibility into what is happening between visits while supporting ongoing patient communication and rehabilitation workflows.

How can RTM help with patient adherence?

RTM can provide clinicians with greater visibility into patient participation and activity between appointments. This can help teams identify when additional communication, education, or follow-up may be appropriate rather than waiting until the patient’s next visit.

What is a HEP in physical therapy?

A HEP, or home exercise program, is a set of exercises or activities prescribed by a rehabilitation professional for a patient to complete outside scheduled appointments as part of their plan of care.

Why are customizable HEPs important?

Patients and specialties can have very different clinical needs. Customizable HEPs give therapists greater flexibility to prescribe exercises appropriate to the individual rather than being limited to a fixed exercise library.

Can pediatric physical therapy use Remote Therapeutic Monitoring?

RTM may be relevant to eligible pediatric rehabilitation workflows, but pediatric care can introduce unique considerations, including caregiver involvement, individualized exercises, patient engagement, and applicable billing requirements. Organizations should evaluate RTM within their specific clinical and compliance workflows.

How does Raintree Systems connect with EverEx?

EverEx has announced a new partnership and integration with Raintree Systems designed to create a more connected RTM experience for rehabilitation organizations using Raintree as their EMR.

See EverEx in action

If the conversations above sound like the ones happening inside your organization, the fastest way to judge fit is to see the workflow against your own patient scenarios. Request a demo, or try the RTM revenue calculator to estimate the impact on your practice.

This article is for informational purposes only and is not medical, legal, or billing advice. Confirm RTM billing, documentation, and supervision specifics with your compliance and coding teams.