Supporting Consultations in Remote Physiotherapy (SCiP) v1.0

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Supporting Consultations in Remote Physiotherapy (SCiP): a mixed-methods study to develop guidance for video consultations in physiotherapy services

• IRAS ID

  289399

• Contact name

  Lucas Seuren

• Contact email

  lucas.seuren@phc.ox.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  University of Oxford / Clinical Trials and Research Governance

• Duration of Study in the UK

  0 years, 11 months, 31 days

• Research summary

  Video consultations using Skype and similar technologies are being rapidly introduced across the NHS. Physiotherapy services have significantly scaled up services to enable patients to access healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic, with limited time to consider impact on clinical practice.

  Video consultations play a potential crucial role in remote physiotherapy services where the visual element provides a vital assessment tool that allows clinicians to see how patients move. However, there is currently only limited guidance to help clinicians and patients make optimal use of video consultations in physiotherapy services.
  In the earlier Qualitative Analysis of Remote Consultations (QuARC) study, we developed a suite of evidence-based resources to support clinicians and patients with video consultations. Resources have been implemented by NHS as a central resource for the COVID-19 pandemic, and have been enthusiastically received and taken up by general practices, hospitals and patients across the NHS. However, they provided limited information about physical examinations by video (an emerging area in which there has been very little research to-date) and were not designed for physiotherapy services. To support sustained scale-up during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, resources are urgently needed that can support use of physical examinations in video consultation for physiotherapy.
  The aim of this project is to understand how physical examinations are conducted for physiotherapy services. It will consist of two phases:

  1. We will video record up to 20 video consultations in three physiotherapy services (orthopaedics, pain management, and neuromuscular rehabilitation and self-management). We will use established analytic techniques to understand how physical examinations are successfully completed over video, including how people speak, how they move their body and how they use technology.
  2. We will involve patients in a series of co-design workshops and work with a design company to produce evidence-based guidance to support wider use of video consultations in the NHS

• REC name

  East Midlands - Nottingham 1 Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  21/EM/0082

• Date of REC Opinion

  29 Apr 2021

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion