Virtual clinics in respiratory physiotherapy #physiotalk 18th Nov

Our tweetchat on 18th November is with @kthrnoneill at 8.30pm GMT on the topic of virtual clinics for respiratory physiotherapy.

Virtual clinics is the use of videoconferencing and telemedicine to support the assessment, monitoring and management at a distance, away from traditional face-to-face clinic consultation.

Videoconferencing has been used with respiratory patients, in the delivery of routine appointments, annual assessments and multidisciplinary team (MDT) discussions, with more recent studies also able to share imaging, educational slides, lung function and microbiology results.

Respiratory virtual clinics have been reported to be used between specialist and primary care teams e.g. were patients attend a general practice surgery and their GP consulted with a hospital specialist via a videolink between the hospital and the practice. And directly between the patient and the hospital specialist team. This approach can increase accessibility to healthcare.

Can it be used effectively for treating and managing patients requiring respiratory physiotherapy?

Questions to consider

• What type of respiratory patients do you use virtual clinics with?
• What type of respiratory patients do you think virtual clinics would be useful for?
• Do you use virtual clinics to link with other MDT members or with primary care?
• What type of assessments are feasible to carry out via a virtual clinic?
• What type of treatments are feasible to deliver via a virtual clinic?
• What type of technology (i.e. what type of device, applications, server, videolink) do you use to deliver via a virtual clinic?
• What was / what do you think would be the biggest barrier to setting up a virtual clinic?
• What is the patient experience with virtual clinics?
• What is the clinician experience with virtual clinics?

 

Resources

A virtual asthma clinic for children: fewer routine outpatient visits, same asthma control

The feasibility of online video calling to engage patients with cystic fibrosis in exercise training.

Digital technologies and adherence in respiratory diseases: the road ahead

Telehealth clinics increase access to care for adults with cystic fibrosis living in rural and remote Western Australia.

 

Our chat host

Katherine O’Neill is a Respiratory Research Physiotherapist in the Wolfson-Wellcome Clinical Research Facility, Queen’s University Belfast. She is currently working on researching digital solutions in respiratory physiotherapy.

Chat transcript

A transcript of this chat is available at the following link:

Transcript