Feasibility of COVID-19 telerehabilitation program from hospital to home using smartphone application: Prospective pilot program

Abstract

Introduction: Telemedicine is proving to be a useful tool in the telemonitoring and telerehabilitation of respiratory patients. The use of telemedicine has been proposed by the main medical societies because of the limited resources and the healthcare workers' infection risk in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Aim and methods: This pilot program aims to evaluate the feasibility of the COVID-19 telerehabilitation program from the hospital to the home with clinical, functional, and patient satisfaction outcomes. Rehabilitation was initiated in the hospital by a physiotherapist and complemented by the "Estoi" app, which was continued at home with telemonitoring and messaging with the medical team. Patients' habitual use of smartphones was not queried for inclusion. Ethics committee (ref.PR168/20).

Results: 16 patients were consecutively enrolled, 47% women with a mean age of 63 years old. 81% of patients used the app for rehabilitation, 88% referred that the telemedicine program incentivized them to do more physical therapy, and 63% would choose telerehabilitation instead of center-based rehabilitation for new rehabilitation programs. 8,4 and 8,9/10 were the satisfaction with the mobile application and with the telerehabilitation program respectively.

Conclusion: Beginning telerehabilitation in the hospital could increase the efficacy and efficiency of physical therapy, which is safe for patients and healthcare workers. Following at home, this telerehabilitation program seems to encourage and empower patients who have reported high satisfaction. Further randomized studies with larger numbers of patients and multicenter studies are required to evaluate these results.