medi® vision Saves Time and Improves Access to Lymphedema Care

Published in Women's Health on June 15, 2020

By: Christopher Miles, OTR/L, CLT, CWCA

It is interesting to look back in life and try to make sense of the decisions we make. As an occupational therapist working in a hospital for many years, I jumped ship and landed in an oncology center during the dawn of oncology rehabilitation and the newer specialty of lymphedema care. This is a decision that I will never regret. There were many rewards and challenges that fueled the success of my professional career. With medical advancements in cancer treatment and heightened awareness of lymphedema, there were many patients looking for help and solutions.

As a practicing certified lymphedema therapist, delivering clinical therapy challenged and honed my therapeutic skills. I was very fortunate to have a fitter located in my cancer center who fully managed my caseload for measuring and fitting both round knit and flat‐knit solutions. Having access to this resource greatly enhanced not only my time, but my outcomes. The process of manual measuring is both time and labor intensive, and that rarely fits into a therapy schedule, let alone fitting the custom product once it is produced.

The thought of improving that process and reducing the workload of capturing manual measurements for flat‐knit garments is on the mind of every lymphedema therapist. Currently, as Senior Manager of Clinical Services at medi® USA, I was eager to join the medi® vision project and assist in bringing digital measuring technology for custom garments to the market. With medi’s strong history of high‐quality, flat‐knit compression garments, partnering with LymphaTech was a win‐win situation. Once their proven technology was applied to our parameters of the lymphedema garment business, we were eager to begin.

Throughout the arc of development to the eventual delivery of medi vision to customers for utilization, many lessons were learned along the way. We know that the measurements are done accurately, and the time required to gather measurements, design and submit garments for production is under 10‐15 minutes. Typically, this process could take up to 45 minutes if manually measured. The digital scanning experience through medi vision is much enhanced for both the fitter and patient. This technology will greatly assist in boosting access for the many patients that need flat‐knit lymphedema garments to successfully manage their chronic lymphedema.

To learn more about medi vision, the measuring tool to create a better fitting experience, please visit mediusavision.com and mediusa.com.

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