How Do People with Neurological Disease Evaluate Their Experience with Telerehabilitation? Experiences of People with Multiple Sclerosis

Background: Telerehabilitation has grown with the advances of modern communication technologies, but it experienced its greatest surge during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our department also wanted to offer our patients with chronic neurological conditions (specifically, multiple sclerosis (MS)) the opportunity to exercise with a physiotherapist remotely during pandemic restrictions. We continued with telerehabilitation afterwards, but for further development of telerehabilitation programs we sought feedback from participants. Methods: People with multiple sclerosis (MS) who participated in any form of telerehabilitation offered at our MS centre between January 2021 and June 2024 were invited to complete a brief semi-structured interview to assess their feedback. To ensure unbiased responses, the feedback was obtained from a therapist other than the one with whom they had completed the online session. Results: A total of 95 multiple sclerosis (MS) patients (14 of whom were male) participated in telerehabilitation programs during the study period, with a mean age of 46.5 years. Of these, 82 agreed to participate in short interview. Patients particularly valued the ability to avoid commuting and the time flexibility in scheduling sessions. They perceived the limited opportunities for hands-on correction and the lack of personal interaction with the therapist and other patients as the most significant disadvantages. Conclusions: Telerehabilitation appears to be a viable complement to in-person physiotherapy for some patients with chronic conditions. In our experience, it is feasible to deliver telerehabilitation to people with multiple sclerosis who do not have severe disability, without the need for complex equipment.