On “Musculoskeletal Physical Therapy During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Is Telerehabilitation the Answer?” Turolla A, Rossettini G, Viceconti A, Palese A, Geri T. Phys Ther. 2020;100:1260–1264

Doing things you never imagined: Professional and ethical issues in the U.S. outpatient physical therapy setting during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Consistent with previous research about the effectiveness of telerehabilitation ( Turolla et al, 2020 ; Bennell et al, 2021 ; Gilbert et al, 2020 ; Rosen et al, 2020 ; Seron et al, 2021 ; Suso-Martí et al, 2021 ; Tenforde et al, 2020 ; Bury and Stokes, 2020 ; Cottrell et al, 2017 ), in this study telehealth was viewed as providing access to safe and effective physical therapy care for some treatments and some patients. Nevertheless, participants expressed concerns about telehealth's inherent limitations and potential negative consequences for patient care and the physical therapy profession ( Bennell et al, 2021 ; Tenforde et al, 2020 ; Grundstein et al, 2021 ; Hall et al, 2021 ; Barton et al, 2022 ; Malliaras et al, 2021 ; Tanaka et al, 2020 ).…”

Reliability and Validity Inquiry for Tele-assessment Based on Video Conferencing

“…The increase in application cases of telerehabilitation service will be expanded the information about the service and serve as a good opportunity to verify the effectiveness of telerehabilitation service and patient satisfaction [2]. Thus, it is necessary to verify reliability and validity of whether this service is a useful approach for performing patient assessments, formulating treatment plans, providing interventions, conducting recovery procedures leading to discharge, and comprehensive patient management [6,7]. In particular, performing patient assessment is the most important information collection process for a therapist, and is an essential process for implementing effective treatment strategies such as treatment plan establishment, clinical reasoning process, and intervention selection [9].…”

Active Video Games and Low-Cost Virtual Reality: An Ideal Therapeutic Modality for Children With Physical Disabilities During a Global Pandemic

“…While these preventives measure effectively reduce the rate of COVID-19 on a population scale, individuals with physical disabilities and their families are facing unique challenges, including disruption of daily routines, and limited access to rehabilitation programs (4). The World Confederation for Physical Therapy among several other professional associations worldwide recommends to either stop or post-pone rehabilitation services that are considered non-essential (5). In a recent survey of health professionals across 35 European countries (6), rehabilitation outpatients' activities were stopped in 83% of countries, with an estimated range of 1.3-2.2 million Europeans deprived of rehabilitation services.…”

“…Recently, an expert group of clinicians, researchers and outpatient health program leaders proposed telerehabilitation as a promising strategy to maintain rehabilitation services during this unprecedented time (5). Telerehabilitation is defined as the provision of rehabilitation services via telemedicine methods and techniques (29).…”

“…This will not only benefit the children with physical disabilities to preserve social contact with their therapist, and maintain improvements already realized, but it could simultaneously reduce the burden on parents. However, telerehabilitation also presents several challenges including: limited training, knowledge and technology/equipment needed for both clinicians and parents as well as a structured therapy intervention (5). Telerehabilitation could be used to facilitate the delivery of rehabilitation services remotely, and the inclusion of active video games and/or low-cost virtual reality, that uses either a synchronous or asynchronous format, in collaboration with a therapist could provide a unique and engaging substitute for in-person services in the current global pandemic.…”