Telerehabilitation from the perspective of patients and healthcare providers: A 3-year follow-up study.
Lucia Willadino Braga, Sandro Barbosa Oliveira, Lígia Maria do Nascimento Souza
PMID 39213097WHAT IT FOUND
Patients rated telerehabilitation as highly effective and satisfying, with most preferring it to in-person care.
Providers agreed it helped treatment but strongly preferred face-to-face sessions, citing difficulties with remote physical and cognitive assessments.
Key findings
0196.1% of patients reported being satisfied with telerehabilitation, and 85.1% rated it equal to or better than in-person care.
02Only 39.7% of rehabilitation providers rated telerehabilitation as equal to or better than in-person care, showing a large gap with patient satisfaction.
03Providers found it difficult to conduct physical-functional evaluations (25%) and formal tests (26%) remotely, though 95% reported telerehabilitation contributed to patient treatment.
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 study was conducted within a single hospital network with established patient-provider relationships, which may inflate satisfaction scores compared to new or unrelated providers. Satisfaction was assessed during a pandemic context where remote care was often the only option, potentially biasing positive responses. The study measured perceptions of effectiveness and satisfaction, not actual clinical outcomes or patient improvement. Response rates were low relative to invitations (2,755 of 19,578 patients), introducing potential selection bias.
Declared interests
The authors declare no relevant conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret high patient satisfaction as evidence that telerehabilitation is clinically equivalent to in-person care for all conditions. Providers rated in-person care significantly higher due to the inability to perform physical and formal assessments remotely, and actual clinical outcomes were not measured in this study.