Patient and clinician perceptions of telehealth in musculoskeletal physiotherapy services - A systematic review of the evidence-base
Anthony Smith, Sue Innes
Abstract
Telehealth has been at the forefront of healthcare delivery since the Covid-19 pandemic with a prompt shift in transition from face-to-face delivery to remote contact. This critical review aims to understand patient and clinician views of telehealth adoption regarding effectiveness and satisfaction within musculoskeletal (MSK) physiotherapy services.
Introduction
Musculoskeletal (MSK) physiotherapists working in both primary and secondary care roles provide expert assessment, treatment, and management of MSK conditions. Physiotherapy improves human movement and function to optimise health in individuals affected by illness, injury, or disability. MSK physiotherapy as a healthcare profession has traditionally used face-to-face consultation to gather information through history taking and physical examination, this assessment then enables decision making and treatment.
Methods
This review was registered in the PROSPERO database: CRD42024498878.
Results
Despite the synonymy between the different dimensions studied, firm conclusions between studies are limited by the heterogenous nature of methodology, however, a narrative exploring themes of satisfaction from the collected studies is possible.
Discussion
The studies included within this review depict a predominantly positive impression of telehealth for both patients and clinicians. Findings echo similar studies illustrating comparable positive attitudes to telehealth. Although a direct comparison between studies was not possible due to their heterogeneity, the overall narrative suggested that both clinicians and patients were happy and willing to engage with telehealth in some capacity.
Conclusion
This review has partially addressed and answered the research question and study’s aims. The research question was to examine the impact of telehealth on patient and clinician satisfaction within MSK physiotherapy. This review has identified literature that supports the use of telehealth within physiotherapy and has culminated a vast number of perspectives supporting the notion of satisfaction from both clinician and patient’s viewpoints. The aims of this study were to understand patient and clinician views of telehealth adoption and has revealed some important benefits and challenges faced by current literature, providing a strong basis for future recommendations of research.
Citation: Smith A, Innes S (2025) Patient and clinician perceptions of telehealth in musculoskeletal physiotherapy services - A systematic review of the evidence-base. PLOS Digit Health 4(3): e0000789. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000789
Editor: Haleh Ayatollahi, Iran University of Medical Sciences, IRAN, ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF
Received: September 25, 2024; Accepted: February 16, 2025; Published: March 31, 2025
Copyright: © 2025 Smith, Innes. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Data Availability: All relevant data are within the manuscript and its Supporting information files.
Funding: The author(s) received no specific funding for this work.
Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
