Sociotechnical Adaptation of Telerehabilitation in Rehabilitation Practice: Survey Among Rehabilitation Professionals.
Tuija Partanen, Riitta Seppänen-Järvelä, Sinikka Hiekkala and 1 others
PMID 40720883WHAT IT FOUND
Professionals said telerehabilitation adoption depended on clients' skills, support, suitable technology, and organizational conditions.
It reports perceptions during pandemic use, not evidence that remote therapy improves outcomes.
Key findings
01Professionals reported that clients needed technical, motor, and cognitive skills, that suitability depended more on personal factors and life situation than diagnosis, and that some clients needed a supportive person to participate.
02Telerehabilitation increased professionals' mental and physical workload, required learning new technologies and guiding clients, and made task planning harder because the client's environment was only partly visible.
03Remote connection could save time and increase flexibility, but it also changed attendance patterns; adoption happened under pandemic pressure with extra costs and guideline demands.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The survey was anonymous, so the authors could not compare respondents with non-respondents, leaving nonresponse bias possible. Participants were recruited through email, professional networks, newsgroups, and social media, so the sample may not represent all Finnish outpatient rehabilitation professionals. All responses were optional, and the analysis used only open-ended responses from a larger questionnaire. Data were collected during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, when remote practice was strongly recommended, so views may reflect forced change rather than routine adoption. Many participants conducted telerehabilitation against their wishes and expressed critical views. The study reported professionals' perspectives and did not include clients' experiences. The findings are qualitative themes about adoption, not measured effects on rehabilitation outcomes. The proposed framework was not tested against empirical outcome data.
Declared interests
No conflicts of interest were declared.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that telerehabilitation improves rehabilitation outcomes. The study reports professionals' perceptions of adoption during pandemic-era remote practice, not client results or causal effects.