During the Covid-19 pandemic, telehealth services including remote guidance in the field of healthcare and wellbeing increased enormously. Also leaps in overall digitalization and implementation of digital elements were seen. Experts were forced to adjust fast in changing environmental changes due to lockdowns and people’s restricted mobility. The wide benefits of digital practice to societies has been reported i.a. efficient use of public resources, greater emphasis on self-management, equity of access regardless the living place and lesser environmental impact of travelling (WCPT/INPTRA, 2020).

According to Bucki et. al (2022) telehealth has been shown to be feasible for the healthcare providers and some evidence suggest its also to be reliable and treatments to be effective in some degrees. Importantly, patient-satisfaction was noted to be good or better than in-office care. Estel et. al (2022) reported that majority of the physiotherapists saw high potential to digitalization in physiotherapy sector, and it was concluded that there is need for identification of specific tools for the every-day use.

The Erasmus+ project “REBALANCE - Engaging Physiotherapists and gymnasts in the digital performance of their profession for distance guidance in physical exercise” is finally rolling and on the way. One of the initial steps was to review experts’ opinions and experiences in using distance guidance during the COVID-19 outbreak. Possible learning needs were identified for the upcoming construction of learning environment through a survey from experts.

As background information, total of 85 professionals (app. 70% women) from six different countries responded the survey (Fig 1.).

Figure 1. Respondents and countries (n=85)

Also, of the respondents, roughly 40% were under 35 years old and 10% older than 55 years old. Of all respondents, majority, 80%,  were between 25-54 years old. In addition, 63% of respondents were either physiotherapist (30%) or Gymnasts/Fitness Trainers(33%) (Fig.2). Regarding education of respondents, ¾ of them had either bachelor’s degree or higher education (Fig.3). As for the respondents’ work experience, 16% of them had worked less than three years, 30% between  3-10 years and 50% ten years or more.

Figure 2. Respondents’ professions(n=85)

Figure 3. Respondents’ education (n=85).

From the respondents, app. 40%, were working in field of healthcare, either in private, primary or hospital settings. Five respondents were working in the school (Fig4.). Slight majority of all respondents, 43%, informed working in either VET centers, gyms or sport clubs.

Figure4. Respondents and their field of work(n=85).

In the following article, more detailed results of respondents experience of digital practice will be presented and discussed.

References: 

Bucki FM, Clay MB, Tobiczyk H, Green BN. Scoping Review of Telehealth for Musculoskeletal Disorders: Applications for the COVID-19 Pandemic. J Manipulative Physiol Ther. 2021 Sep;44(7):558-565. doi: 10.1016/j.jmpt.2021.12.003. Epub 2022 Mar 3. PMID: 35249750; PMCID: PMC8892222.

Estel K, Scherer J, Dahl H, Wolber E, Forsat ND, Back DA. Potential of digitalization within physiotherapy: a comparative survey. BMC Health Serv Res. 2022 Apr 13;22(1):496. doi: 10.1186/s12913-022-07931-5. PMID: 35418069; PMCID: PMC9007581.

WCPT/INPTRA. 2020. Report of the wcpt/inptra digital physical therapy practice task force. Digital Physical Therapy Task Force, 2017-2020.

Authored by: 

Esa Bärlund, Senior Lecturer in Physiotherapy, Turku University of Applied Sciences 

Satu Takala, Health and well-being -Lecturer in Physiotherapy,  Turku University of Applied Sciences