Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and King Fahad Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Department of Communication and Swallowing Disorders, King Fahad Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Telemed J E Health. 2021 May;27(5):587-591. doi: 10.1089/tmj.2020.0016. Epub 2020 May 7.
Continuity of rehabilitation care after completion of a hospital-based rehabilitation program remains a challenge. This is of considerable significance in Saudi Arabia where there is a lack of community-based rehabilitation, which renders the need of telemedicine services. There is lack of data regarding understanding, awareness, and attitudes of rehabilitation professional toward telerehabilitation. This study was aimed to explore Saudi-based rehabilitation professionals' knowledge of telerehabilitation. After pilot testing, a survey questionnaire was distributed to 82 rehabilitation professionals working in different regions of Saudi Arabia. The survey included 14 close-ended questions targeting five domains: demographics, telemedicine knowledge, telerehabilitation service knowledge, social acceptance of these services, and risks associated with these services. Descriptive statistics were obtained by analyzing data using Microsoft Excel. In total 46% of the participants were aware of telerehabilitation service technology but did not use it. 69.51% considered both telerehabilitation and community-based rehabilitation as the best service delivery methods. About 43% of participants reported that lack of knowledge about information technology and cost were the main factors that led to their limited use of telerehabilitation systems. The majority of the participants (52.44%) considered breach of confidentiality to be a risk associated with telerehabilitation services. Even though considerable number of the participants considered telerehabilitation as an important service delivery method, most of them are not involved in telerehabilitation. This renders the need of establishing local telerehabilitation guidelines and addressing the barriers pertaining to training, resources, cost, policy making, confidentiality, and perception of patients.
康复治疗在医院康复计划完成后的延续仍然是一个挑战。在沙特阿拉伯，由于缺乏社区康复，远程医疗服务显得尤为重要。对于康复专业人员对远程康复的理解、认识和态度，目前还缺乏相关数据。本研究旨在探讨沙特康复专业人员对远程康复的认识。 在试点测试后，向沙特阿拉伯不同地区工作的 82 名康复专业人员分发了一份调查问卷。该调查包括 14 个针对五个领域的封闭式问题：人口统计学、远程医疗知识、远程康复服务知识、对这些服务的社会接受程度以及与这些服务相关的风险。使用 Microsoft Excel 分析数据获得描述性统计数据。 共有 46%的参与者了解远程康复服务技术，但未使用过。69.51%的参与者认为远程康复和社区康复都是最佳的服务提供方式。约 43%的参与者报告称，缺乏信息技术知识和成本是导致他们有限使用远程康复系统的主要因素。大多数参与者（52.44%）认为信息泄露是与远程康复服务相关的风险。 尽管相当多的参与者认为远程康复是一种重要的服务提供方式，但他们大多数人并未参与远程康复。这就需要制定本地远程康复指南，并解决培训、资源、成本、政策制定、保密性和患者认知方面的障碍。
