title: Validity and reliability of the assessment and diagnosis of musculoskeletal elbow disorders using telerehabilitation.
abstract: We examined the validity and reliability of a physiotherapy examination of the elbow, using telerehabilitation. The patho-anatomical diagnoses, systems diagnosis and physical examination findings of face-to-face physiotherapy examinations were compared with telerehabilitation examinations. Ten participants attended a single session, during which they were interviewed, a face-to-face physical examination was performed and a remote physical examination was conducted, guided by an examiner at a different location via a telerehabilitation system. Conventional face-to-face physiotherapy physical examination test results, diagnoses and systems diagnoses were compared to those produced by an examiner using the telerehabiliation system. There was substantial agreement for systems diagnosis (73%; P = 0.013) for validity and almost perfect agreement for intra-rater reliability (90%; P = 0.001). The inter-rater reliability had a weaker and non-significant agreement (64%; P = 0.11). Physical examination data demonstrated >68% agreement across all three datasets, between the examination methods. Performing a telerehabilitation physical examination to determine a musculoskeletal diagnosis of the elbow joint complex is both valid and reliable.
authors.affiliation: Division of Physiotherapy, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia.
authors.forename: Hannah
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lade
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: McKenzie
authors.forename: Leah
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Steele
authors.forename: Trevor G
authors.initials: TG
authors.lastname: Russell
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004550:Elbow / Q000002:abnormalities*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D009140:Musculoskeletal Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D010173:Palpation / Q000592:standards; D017933:Peripheral Nervous System; D010808:Physical Examination / Q000379:methods*; D026741:Physical Therapy Modalities; D019114:Remote Consultation / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results