From Hands to Words—Physiotherapists Experience of Delivering Online Exercise and Education for Individuals With Knee Osteoarthritis

Background
Little is known about delivering telehealth from a healthcare provider’s perspective.

Purpose
To investigate physiotherapists’ (PTs) experiences in delivering live online exercise and education for people with knee osteoarthritis (OA).

Methods
This was a qualitative individual interview study with a thematic analysis approach. The interviewees were six PTs delivering 8 weeks of supervised online exercise and education for people with knee OA in secondary public care in Denmark.

Results
The three main themes were (1) From hands to words—on the transition from on-site to on-line physiotherapy, (2) Online selection—on the perceived barriers to managing a telehealth service and (3) Therapeutic relation under pressure—on the contextual difficulties in building relationships and alliances in online classes.

Conclusion
The PTs in this study seemed to gradually come to terms with delivering first-line OA care online, appreciating advantages and new possibilities. PTs’ initial apprehension towards this new form of physiotherapy service may be rooted in the traditional conception of physiotherapy as a predominantly manual profession but also in a lack of formal training in physiotherapy telehealth services. This study underlines the growing need for better and more formalised training in physiotherapy telehealth services to meet growing demands.