Connected technologies are making patient-generated data increasingly accessible to health care providers. How this "Internet of Things" will be leveraged by physical therapists remains to be seen.

Just a few years ago, there still was some question about how the Internet might make its mark on physical therapy. Many physical therapists (PTs) were using "cloud-based" electronic medical record (EMR) systems to store practice data on external servers accessed via the web. Other PTs, of course, relied on the Internet in their day-to-day activities in what might be termed "conventional" ways: to communicate with colleagues; as a tool, through patient portals, for connecting with patients and clients; and as a near-limitless source of useful information.