title: A pilot study of physiotherapy education using videoconferencing.
abstract: We investigated the possibility of instructing people in how to assist patients with activities of daily living via videoconferencing. A videoconference system was installed in two rooms to simulate a connection between a home and an institution. The subjects were five first-year university students. First, they saw a video-tape on several general assistance procedures to help a patient with sitting up, standing up and walking with a cane. Then they assisted a simulated patient who reproduced the effects of right hemiplegia due to a stroke. They also received instructions from a physiotherapist in another room using the videoconference system. The students experienced most difficulty in assisting the patient to stand up from sitting with legs stretched in a tatami room. Their mean score in the first session for this was 34.5 points out of 45, and this increased to 38.5 in a second session, after a question and answer period. The present study shows that the delivery of rehabilitation services is feasible in remote places.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiotherapy, Aomori University of Health and Welfare, Aomori, Japan. r_maeno@auhw.ac.jp
authors.forename: Ryutaro
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Maeno
authors.forename: Chikako
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fujita
authors.forename: Hiroyasu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Iwatsuki
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D004517:Education, Professional / Q000379:methods*; D006699:Home Care Services; D006801:Humans; D026761:Physical Therapy Specialty / Q000193:education*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D049269:Videoconferencing