Awareness, attitudes, beliefs, and perceived challenges about the role and implementation of telerehabilitation for post-COVID-19 patients in physiotherapists of Gujarat: A cross-sectional survey

INTRODUCTION: COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected healthcare delivery system in all the fields including physiotherapy. Post-COVID-19 patients are at risk of long-term functional impairments and physiotherapists can play vital role in improving the quality life and health status of such patients. Telerehabilitation refers specifically to clinical rehabilitation services with the focus of evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment. Being a technologically evolving country, physiotherapists of India are unfamiliar with the context and concept of telerehabilitation at large. This study intends to explore awareness, attitudes, and beliefs of physiotherapists from Gujarat, about the role of telerehabilitation for post-COVID-19 patients. METHODS: A cross-sectional study using self-designed web-based survey questionnaire, E-mailed to the physiotherapists of Gujarat was conducted. Three hundred and twenty-seven responses were recorded and analyzed for descriptive statistics. RESULTS: Results indicated that ~ 83% of physiotherapists thought that physiotherapists should start using telerehabilitation as a routine mode of health service delivery for post-COVID-19 patients but only 30.6% have been using it as their preferred practice mode currently. The largest barrier encountered by majority (i.e., 68.5%) physiotherapists was difficulty in compliance by patients and lack of technological infrastructure. CONCLUSIONS: Telerehabilitation is gradually becoming popular especially in the younger generations of physiotherapists and can play a pivotal role in improving health service delivery not just for post-COVID-19 patients but other patients as well.