Advanced Telehealth Techniques: Translating Clinical Skills to Telehealth

Video Runtime: 54 Minutes; Learning Assessment Time: 26 Minutes

As telehealth continues to grow, physical therapists must adapt their clinical skills to provide high-quality remote care. This course explores advanced telehealth techniques, equipping providers with the tools to assess and treat patients effectively in a virtual setting. Participants will learn how to standardize evaluations, ensure reproducibility, and apply decision-making frameworks for selecting appropriate telehealth procedures. The course also delves into the use of self-mobilization techniques, including patient instruction, contraindications, and the integration of tools to optimize treatment outcomes. By mastering these skills, physical therapists can enhance patient care, ensuring telehealth is a viable and effective alternative to in-person visits.

Learning Objectives

• Explain the conditions that must be met to provide safe digital care
• Assess the feasibility, reliability, and validity of a therapeutic procedure for a patient during an evaluation
• Standardize the performance of evaluation techniques using nonmodifiable variables in the patient’s environment to increase reproducibility of the physical therapy assessment
• Complete valid, reliable, and reproducible special tests of the upper quarter, lower quarter, and spine during telehealth evaluations
• Identify absolute and relative contraindications to self-mobilization techniques
• Utilize direct force, counterpressure, stabilizing force, and tensioning force in self-mobilization techniques during a telehealth encounter
• Utilize a variety of props and tools, such as bands and foam rollers, to produce external overpressure with mobilizing movements
• Instruct a patient through a self-mobilization technique, including equipment requirements, environment setup, and force generation