NHS East Berkshire will be trialling a technology that will allow patients to carry out rehabilitation exercises at home, rather than seeing a physiotherapist.

The trial comes as part of the launch of O2 Health. The technology means that patients are able to return home earlier and carry out a prearranged rehabilitation programme, which would be shown on a TV screen. The patient's progress would be monitored via movement sensors.

The data would be captured and communicated back to the physiotherapist who would regularly evaluate the information, to ensure the patient is doing the movements right.

Keith Nurcombe, head of O2 Health, was cited on E-Health Insider as saying: "This provides a better experience for the patients, as they know that they are doing it correctly, but it also means that physiotherapists have more time to see other patients."

The system is due to go live in a maximum of six weeks and is based on technology introduced in Spain by O2's parent company Telefonica. If the trial is successful, it could spark a major change to the way those in physiotherapy jobs work with their patients.

O2 Health has already worked with Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust, providing a digital pen which enables midwives to use BlackBerries to send data via Bluetooth to the Trust's patient record system. The pen has halved the time midwives were spending on administration, meaning they could spend more time with expectant and new mothers. It is projected the technology will save the Trust £220,000 year.

"We want to provide an end to end solution where you can absolutely see the patient benefit as part of the criteria but this will often have an impact on staff by freeing up their time," Nurcombe added.