Remote physical therapy during COVID-19 pandemic: guidelines in the Brazilian context

Abstract

Introduction: On March 11, 2020, Covid-19 was characterized by the World Health Organization as a pandemic. In this context, different health professional councils have adopted initiatives to use communication technologies to provide services at a distance. Specifically, for physiotherapy, the Federal Council of Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy (COFFITO) made possible the modalities of teleconsultation, teleconsulting, and telemonitoring. Objective: This study aimed to develop guidelines for physiotherapists who provide teleservices, which will help ensure the safety and quality of their professional practice during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: An integrative literature review was conducted through PubMed (National Library of Medicine), Cochrane Library, Higher Education Personnel Improvement Coordination Portal - CAPES, Virtual Health Library, Google Scholar, and personal experience within the team to develop guidelines for remote physical therapy during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: Initially, 3,298 articles were selected from all cited search bases, scaled to 2,031 after exclusion due to repetition, 78 were in compliance with the proposed study, 73 of which were excluded for not answering the guiding question; therefore, 5 articles were accepted for the final analysis and used for the elaboration of the guidelines. Conclusion: The results provide an overview of the literature and guidelines for physiotherapists to implement physiotherapy teleconsultation, as well as some of the challenges that need to be considered.

Desenvolvimento e validação de aplicativo web para gestão em fisioterapia na área de traumato-ortopedia

“…A adoção de novos recursos para avaliação na prática clínica em saúde é uma realidade, principalmente devido ao período pandêmico em que o mundo teve que adaptar seus serviços, especialmente no que se refere ao contato terapeutapaciente, no qual, em razão da necessidade do isolamento social, priorizou-se o telessaúde e o trabalho dos profissionais no formato de teleatendimento, inclusive utilizando aplicativos de conversas para ações de educação em saúde (Candido, et al, 2021;Fioratti, et al, 2020;Meirelles, et al, 2022).…”

Augmenting Telepostpartum Care With Vision-Based Detection of Breastfeeding-Related Conditions: Algorithm Development and Validation

“…Like other practices requiring physical evaluation, LCs reimagined their methods when shifting from in-person to remote consultations, using communication and social media apps to reach and educate parents while having broader visibility in their community [37,39]. Remote lactation care presents challenges, including limited visibility during video calls, communication difficulties, and technical issues [18,40,41]. Despite challenges, remote care offers benefits, reducing the mother's sense of isolation, enabling faster feedback, and promoting effective communication and patient engagement for improved independent learning [17,18,22].…”

“…Remote lactation care presents challenges, including limited visibility during video calls, communication difficulties, and technical issues [ 18 , 40 , 41 ]. Despite challenges, remote care offers benefits, reducing the mother’s sense of isolation, enabling faster feedback, and promoting effective communication and patient engagement for improved independent learning [ 17 , 18 , 22 ].…”

Investigating interactive methods in remote chestfeeding support for lactation consulting professionals in Brazil

“…On the one hand, remote lactation care has faced challenges such as a limited field of view of the patient (mother and baby) during video calls, issues with having instructions understood by the patient, mothers with difficulty in demonstrating their chestfeeding problems, lack of standards and guidelines, and technical difficulties ( 26 , 35 , 36 ). On the other hand, remote lactation care brings benefits and advantages, such as helping combat the feeling of isolation, allowing the LC to provide just-in-time nurturing and reassurance to the mother during virtual consultations ( 25 , 26 ), and enabling the LC to focus on effective communication, which benefits the patient’s independent learning ( 35 ) since it requires higher engagement between patient and LC during consultations.…”