title: Consideration of treatment fidelity to improve manual therapy research.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this paper was to define treatment fidelity, review its use in health care research and suggest how it may be utilized in manual therapy research to improve the reliability and validity of the literature.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We offer an outline and a table of how manual therapy research may benefit from the concept of treatment fidelity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  While treatment fidelity is a newer concept, and has not been integrated into Physical Therapy or Manual Therapy research, when utilized, it can have positive effects on the reliability and validity of the techniques we evaluate.
authors: Physical Therapy Department, Chatham University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
authors: Steve
authors: 0000-0003-2819-1219
authors: S
authors: Karas
authors: Physical Therapy Department, Chatham University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
authors: Laura
authors: L
authors: Plankis
keywords: Implementation fidelity; Manual therapy research; Treatment fidelity