Kloek CJJ1, Janssen J1,2, Veenhof C1,3
1HU University of Apllied Sciences Utrecht, Research Group Innovation of Human Movement Care, Utrecht, Netherlands, 2De Hoogstraat Rehabilitation, Department of Pediatrics, Utrecht, Netherlands, 3University Medical Center Utrecht, Department of Rehabilitation, Physiotherapy Science & Sports, Brain Center Rudolf Magnus, Utrecht, Netherlands
Background: The integration of online applications within face-to-face healthcare is called blended care. Blended physiotherapy is promising since patients are offered a tool which can support self-management and trigger them changing their health behavior regardless from time and place. Next, collected health- and compliance data can support physiotherapists in tailoring treatment to patients' individual needs. Last, in some patients, blended physiotherapy might result in reduced healthcare expenditures. Blended physiotherapy is no fixed formula, but needs to be adapted based on patients' individual skills and needs by applying more or less face-to-face guidance alongside the online application. Unless its' potential, blended care is currently only minimally applied. It is known that physiotherapists experience difficulty in applying blended care to the right patient and setting up an optimal blended treatment.
Purpose: The final objective was to develop a checklist to assist physiotherapists while setting up a blended treatment. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate which patient characteristics predict patients' suitability for blended physiotherapy and which patient characteristics need to be taken into account while determining the amount of face-to-face guidance.
Methods: A scoping review. Pubmed and PEDro were searched up to December, 2017. Studies were eligible if they focused on blended physiotherapy consisting of at least two sessions with a physiotherapist complemented by an online application (website, app, robot) which was used outside the clinic, apart from the physiotherapist. Characteristics which were hypothesized to be, or significantly appeared to be, related to patients' suitability for blended physiotherapy were extracted and categorized in sub-themes and main themes. The authors formulated for each main theme a questionnaire-item, which resulted in a first version of the Blended Physiotherapy Checklist. In the last step, six experts in the field of eHealth and physiotherapy provided feedback on relevance and interpretability of the items. The checklist was adapted accordingly.
Results: A number of 23 studies were included. Studies differed in design, target population and type of blended intervention. Of those studies, 212 patient characteristics were extracted which were step-wise grouped in 10 main themes. After expert consultation on the first version of the 10-item Blended Physiotherapy Checklist, 2 items were merged and 1 item was removed because of irrelevance. The final checklist consists of 8 items which were rated as clinically meaningful by the experts. Five items cover prerequisite patient characteristics for being suitable for blended care, i.e.: motivation, safety, equipment, digital skills and health literacy. Three items focus on patient characteristics which can stimulate or hinder the partial substitution of physiotherapeutic guidance by online guidance, i.e.: self-management, practical factors and financial factors.
Conclusion(s): The 8-item Blended Physiotherapy Checklist was developed based on literature and expert opinion. Next step is to investigate whether this checklist resolves physiotherapists' experienced difficulties while setting up a blended physiotherapy treatment in a feasibility study.
Implications: In order to guide physiotherapist in their reasoning process while setting up a blended treatment, this checklist might help to determine patients' suitability for blended physiotherapy and help to determine individuals' optimal amount of face-to-face guidance alongside the online application.
Keywords: eHealth, innovation, self-management
Funding acknowledgements: This study was funded by the HU University of Applied Sciences
Purpose: The final objective was to develop a checklist to assist physiotherapists while setting up a blended treatment. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate which patient characteristics predict patients' suitability for blended physiotherapy and which patient characteristics need to be taken into account while determining the amount of face-to-face guidance.
Methods: A scoping review. Pubmed and PEDro were searched up to December, 2017. Studies were eligible if they focused on blended physiotherapy consisting of at least two sessions with a physiotherapist complemented by an online application (website, app, robot) which was used outside the clinic, apart from the physiotherapist. Characteristics which were hypothesized to be, or significantly appeared to be, related to patients' suitability for blended physiotherapy were extracted and categorized in sub-themes and main themes. The authors formulated for each main theme a questionnaire-item, which resulted in a first version of the Blended Physiotherapy Checklist. In the last step, six experts in the field of eHealth and physiotherapy provided feedback on relevance and interpretability of the items. The checklist was adapted accordingly.
Results: A number of 23 studies were included. Studies differed in design, target population and type of blended intervention. Of those studies, 212 patient characteristics were extracted which were step-wise grouped in 10 main themes. After expert consultation on the first version of the 10-item Blended Physiotherapy Checklist, 2 items were merged and 1 item was removed because of irrelevance. The final checklist consists of 8 items which were rated as clinically meaningful by the experts. Five items cover prerequisite patient characteristics for being suitable for blended care, i.e.: motivation, safety, equipment, digital skills and health literacy. Three items focus on patient characteristics which can stimulate or hinder the partial substitution of physiotherapeutic guidance by online guidance, i.e.: self-management, practical factors and financial factors.
Conclusion(s): The 8-item Blended Physiotherapy Checklist was developed based on literature and expert opinion. Next step is to investigate whether this checklist resolves physiotherapists' experienced difficulties while setting up a blended physiotherapy treatment in a feasibility study.
Implications: In order to guide physiotherapist in their reasoning process while setting up a blended treatment, this checklist might help to determine patients' suitability for blended physiotherapy and help to determine individuals' optimal amount of face-to-face guidance alongside the online application.
Keywords: eHealth, innovation, self-management
Funding acknowledgements: This study was funded by the HU University of Applied Sciences
Topic: Robotics & technology; Education: continuing professional development; Service delivery/emerging roles
Ethics approval required: No
Institution: HU University of Applied Sciences
Ethics committee: HU University of Applied Sciences
Reason not required: Ethics approval was not required since this was a scoping review about new developments in practice
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
