Background: Joint bleeds are the hallmark of hemophilia, leading to a painful arthritic condition called as hemophilic arthropathy (HA). Exercise programs are frequently used to improve the physical functioning in persons with HA. As hemophilia is a rare disease, there are not many physiotherapists who are experienced in the field of hemophilia, and regular physiotherapy sessions with an experienced physiotherapist in the field of hemophilia are not feasible for persons with HA. Blended care is an innovative intervention that can support persons with HA at home to perform the advised physical activities and exercises and provide self-management information. Objective: The aim of this study was to develop a blended physiotherapy intervention for persons with HA. Methods: The blended physiotherapy intervention, namely, e-Exercise HA was developed by cocreation with physiotherapists, persons with HA, software developers, and researchers. The content of e-Exercise HA was compiled using the first 3 steps of the Center for eHealth Research roadmap model (ie, contextual inquiry, value specification, and design), including people with experience in the development of previous blended physiotherapy interventions, a literature search, and focus groups. Results: A 12-week blended intervention was developed, integrating face-to-face physiotherapy sessions with a web-based app. The intervention consists of information modules for persons with HA and information modules for physiotherapists, a graded activity program using a self-chosen activity, and personalized video-supported exercises. The information modules consist of text blocks, videos, and reflective questions. The patients can receive pop-ups as reminders and give feedback on the performance of the prescribed activities. Conclusions: In this study, we developed a blended physiotherapy intervention for persons with HA, which consists of information modules, a graded activity program, and personalized video-supported exercises.
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Background: The integration of digital applications within health care is called blended care. Introduction: Despite its potential, physiotherapists experience difficulty in determining which patients are suitable for blended care. This study aimed to develop a checklist to support physiotherapists while setting up a blended treatment. Therefore, we aimed to investigate which patient characteristics predict patients’ suitability for blended physiotherapy and which patient characteristics need to be taken into account while determining the ratio between therapeutic guidance and a digital application. Methods: A scoping review was conducted consisting of (1) literature search in PubMed and PEDro up to December 2017: studies were eligible if they focused on blended physiotherapy consisting of contact at least twice with a physiotherapist complemented by a digital application, and characteristics related to patients’ suitability for blended physiotherapy were extracted and categorized in themes; (2) a checklist item for each theme formulated by the authors, which resulted in a first version of the Dutch Blended Physiotherapy Checklist; and (3) expert opinion and feedback on clinical relevance by six experts. The checklist was adapted accordingly. Results: The final Dutch Blended Physiotherapy Checklist consists of eight items: motivation, safety, equipment, digital skills, health literacy, self-management, time, and financial factors. Discussion: The next step is to investigate the feasibility and predictive validity of the checklist, that is, whether this checklist is actually able to predict patients’ suitability for blended physiotherapy. Conclusions: This study provides the final version of the Dutch Blended Physiotherapy Checklist, which is supposed to guide physiotherapists in their clinical reasoning process while setting up a personalized, blended physiotherapy treatment.
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Background: Patient education, home-based exercise therapy, and advice on returning to normal activities are established physiotherapeutic treatment options for patients with nonspecific low back pain (LBP). However, the effectiveness of physiotherapy interventions on health-related outcomes largely depends on patient self-management and adherence to exercise and physical activity recommendations. e-Exercise LBP is a recently developed stratified blended care intervention comprising a smartphone app integrated with face-to-face physiotherapy treatment. Following the promising effects of web-based applications on patients’ self-management skills and adherence to exercise and physical activity recommendations, it is hypothesized that e-Exercise LBP will improve patients’ physical functioning. Objective: This study aims to investigate the short-term (3 months) effectiveness of stratified blended physiotherapy (e-Exercise LBP) on physical functioning in comparison with face-to-face physiotherapy in patients with nonspecific LBP. Methods: The study design was a multicenter cluster randomized controlled trial with intention-to-treat analysis. Patients with nonspecific LBP aged ≥18 years were asked to participate in the study. The patients were treated with either stratified blended physiotherapy or face-to-face physiotherapy. Both interventions were conducted according to the Dutch physiotherapy guidelines for nonspecific LBP. Blended physiotherapy was stratified according to the patients’ risk of developing persistent LBP using the Keele STarT Back Screening Tool. The primary outcome was physical functioning (Oswestry Disability Index, range 0-100). Secondary outcomes included pain intensity, fear-avoidance beliefs, and self-reported adherence. Measurements were taken at baseline and at the 3-month follow-up. Results: Both the stratified blended physiotherapy group (104/208, 50%) and the face-to-face physiotherapy group (104/208, 50%) had improved clinically relevant and statistically significant physical functioning; however, there was no statistically significant or clinically relevant between-group difference (mean difference −1.96, 95% CI −4.47 to 0.55). For the secondary outcomes, stratified blended physiotherapy showed statistically significant between-group differences in fear-avoidance beliefs and self-reported adherence. In patients with a high risk of developing persistent LBP (13/208, 6.3%), stratified blended physiotherapy showed statistically significant between-group differences in physical functioning (mean difference −16.39, 95% CI −27.98 to −4.79) and several secondary outcomes. Conclusions: The stratified blended physiotherapy intervention e-Exercise LBP is not more effective than face-to-face physiotherapy in patients with nonspecific LBP in improving physical functioning in the short term. For both stratified blended physiotherapy and face-to-face physiotherapy, within-group improvements were clinically relevant. To be able to decide whether e-Exercise LBP should be implemented in daily physiotherapy practice, future research should focus on the long-term cost-effectiveness and determine which patients benefit most from stratified blended physiotherapy.
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