Telerehabilitation as a clinical tool for Physiotherapists

High quality health services are often difficult to access in rural and remote areas. Telecommunications technology offers a potential medium to provide health services at a distance. This work provides evidence of the efficacy of telerehabilitation as a clinical tool for physiotherapists. This work outlines the development of a telemedicine system to meet the unique needs of clinical physiotherapists and their patients. A series of studies calibrate the system and establish its validity and reliability as a clinical assessment tool. Finally, a randomised controlled trial is presented which demonstrates the treatment efficacy of the telemedicine system and provides an exemplar for future applications.

Autorentext

Dr Trevor Russell is a co-director of the Telerehabilitation Research Unit at the University of Queensland. He specialises in the development and clinical evaluation of telecommunication technologies in the rehabilitation sciences.