Arushi Bidhuri
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Written By: Arushi Bidhuri | Published : September 8, 2021 7:03 PM IST
Musculoskeletal conditions are one of the major causes of world morbidity. In common situations, access to the conventional health care of some people may be problematic and has become an all-embracing barrier amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Telehealth, defined as a distant health care provision, is the solution to numerous obstacles and was rapidly adopted throughout the crisis by many health care professionals. World Physical Therapy Day observed on September 8th raises awareness about the critical contribution that physiotherapists make to society by enabling people to be mobile, well, and independent.
Telerehabilitation, also known as virtual care, is the delivery of professional rehabilitation services, such as those of a physiotherapist via telecommunications technology, covering all elements of patient care including patient interview, physical evaluation, diagnosis, treatment, maintenance, consultation, training, and educational activities encompassing media, such as video conferencing, e-mail, applications and wearable communications.
This also provides patients with valuable benefits such as fewer obstacles to travel, flexible exercise times, and the opportunity to integrate skills better into daily life. However, in comparison with normal surgical care in populations, the effects of telerehabilitation physiotherapy on postoperative functional results are still ambiguous.
Research has demonstrated that telerehabilitation has different clinical advantages and cost savings. These include:
Telerehabilitation was an option open to Physiotherapists even before COVID-19 and has been for many years for delivering physiotherapy worldwide; significantly transitioning from the in-person delivery of physiotherapy to telehealth.
If you reside in a rural or distant area, virtual visits for physiotherapy can help you get the attention you need and increase access to care. It also helps connect clients to a specialist that cannot be offered help locally while overcoming various obstacles.
However, even when the services in person are resumed, there was a substantial interest of 64% people to continue with telerehabilitation, establishing that this service can continue as part of the provision of physiotherapy services, in at least certain locations, beyond the epidemic.
Though this technology makes lives easier by providing alternative treatment options, it also comes with some setbacks.
Telerehabilitation involves more than just switching to a new platform; it necessitates a cultural shift in how physiotherapists and the general public's perspective of physiotherapy, traditionally viewed as a physically demanding profession. How people perceive its effectiveness is another key influencing its adoption. Given the strong desire to continue delivering telerehabilitation (and, in the current environment, the recommendation from health officials to do so in the short and medium-term), whether through a hybrid model of care or not, demand from the public must also rise in order to successfully integrate telerehabilitation as a long-term delivery option for patients.
(The article is contributed by Dr Jitha Joseph, Consultant - Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation, Fortis Hospital, Bannerghatta Road)
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