JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Telemonitoring (TM), as part of telehealth, allows physiotherapists to monitor and coach their patients using remotely collected data. The use of TM requires a different approach compared to face-to-face treatment. Although a telehealth capability framework exists for healthcare professionals, it remains unclear what specific capabilities are required to use TM during physiotherapy treatments.

Objective:

This study aims to identify the capabilities required to use TM in physiotherapy treatment.

Methods:

An exploratory qualitative study was conducted following a constructivist semi-structured grounded theory approach. Three heterogeneous focus groups were conducted with 15 lecturers of the School of Physiotherapy (BSc.) from the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. Focus group discussions were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim. Capabilities for using TM in physiotherapy treatment were identified during an iterative process of data collection and analysis, based on an existing framework with four different domains. Team discussions supported further conceptualization of the findings.

Results:

Sixteen capabilities for the use of TM in physiotherapy treatment were found addressing three different domains. Four capabilities were identified in the ‘digital health technologies, systems, and policies’ domain, seven capabilities in the ’clinical practice and application’ domain and five in the ‘data analysis and knowledge creation’ domain. No capabilities were identified in the ‘system and technology implementation’ domain.

Conclusions:

The use of TM in physiotherapy treatment requires specific capabilities of physiotherapists. To best utilize TM in physiotherapy treatment, it is important to integrate these capabilities into the education of current and future physiotherapists.