Documentation tasks are what they sound like: time-consuming, often complicated, and yet a must for every O&P professional. At the same time, the smallest errors in the device application could result in rejection by health insurance companies. This is remedied by a new digital solution from the health tech company Ottobock: smart documentation.

“Eight out of ten medical supply companies identify documentation requirements as one of their biggest bureaucratic hurdles. With smart documentation, we offer a solution that is unique in the market and helps O&P professionals make their day-to-day work more efficient and flexible,” says Michael Joch, Biomechanics and Motion Analysis Specialist at Ottobock.

smart documentation combines a range of features to meet requirements that previously required a variety of hardware and software for O&P professionals. The cloud-based solution not only creates high-quality treatment documentation, but also uses artificial intelligence to visualise the benefits of devices. AI also helps to write complete reimbursement argumentations. This is a tremendous time saving that O&P professionals can instead invest in treating their patients.

Rethinking treatment documentation: efficient, flexible and intelligent

Creating treatment documentation more efficiently becomes quick and easy in smart documentation with the help of templates. O&P professionals only need to enter the relevant patient data.

Thanks to AI-supported motion analysis, treatment progress and device benefits can also be visualised: O&P professionals record gait videos of their patients and upload them directly to the digital application. The application evaluates the biomechanical data – without any sensors or markers – and then transfers them to the documentation. And that's it: a comprehensive treatment documentation is ready.

Large language models support the argumentation in favour of device reimbursement: Based on a questionnaire on the treatment and life situation of the patients, the AI generates a reasoning proposal that O&P professionals then check for correctness. This puts an end to the long struggle for formulations.

AI: learning by doing

smart documentation was trained using data from the day-to-day work of Ottobock Patient Care businesses and the Ottobock application service. Michael Joch explains: “The quality of the analyses naturally depends on the amount of data with which the AI is fed. Our solution already allows us to create comprehensive documentation and suggested arguments for the Kenevo and Genium X4 microprocessor-controlled prosthetic knee joints, the Exopulse Suitneuromodulation suit and the C-Brace orthotic system. Thanks to the increased use, smart documentation will continue to improve.”

The health tech company Ottobock is presenting smart documentation for the first time at EXPOLIFE 2025 – the international trade fair for specialist stores providing medical supplies, rehabilitation, orthopaedic technology and orthopaedic shoe technology. Interested parties can find out more about the digital solution and try it out for themselves in Kassel from 20 to 22 March 2025.