Dr. Susan Palsbo of MedStar Research Institute is the Principal Investigator on a Methodology and Design project entitled Effectiveness Measures for Tele-rehabilitation.

Q: What is unique and/or innovative about your study?
This is one of the very first studies to ask, will a physical therapist or speech language pathologist “see” a patient the same way over a video connection as in person?

Q: How is your project progressing so far?
It took us a while to locate validated measures that are visually-based, particularly for physical therapy which often uses touch as part of the assessment. We hope to finish data collection this month.

Q: What prompted you to explore this research?
Many of our patients don’t show up for their therapy appointments because they can’t ambulate, can’t find transportation to our clinics, or because getting around is too painful.

Q: How would a typical end-user utilize the final product/results of your research?
Assuming we find the assessments are equivalent, we’ll develop a randomized controlled trial of tele-therapy to measure its clinical effectiveness.

Q: What are the greatest challenges in eHealth and more specifically, your project?
Overcoming the bias to in-person diagnosis and treatment – biases on the part of clinicians, and by Medicare and other payers.

Q: In what ways would you like to see eHealth evolve?
I wish policymakers had a better understanding of how eHealth can be used to overcome access disparities suffered by people with disabilities – including a lot of disabled people in urban areas, by the way.

Q: How do you stay informed of advances and innovations in eHealth?
National Rehabilitation Hospital joined the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) as an institutional member. The ATA has several list-serves, including two on home health and rehabilitation that I find very helpful. The ATA also produces a peer-reviewed journal, The Telemedicine Journal. I subscribe to the Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare, printed in England, which prints peer-reviewed articles from around the world, and the Telehealth Practice Report, which is more informal but more current. One of my best resources is the monthly electronic newsletter produced by the National Library of Medicine, called the Telemedicine Information Exchange.

Susan, thanks for the progress report and resource suggestions.

Dr. Adrian Casillas of UCLA School of Medicine will update us on his project in the next edition of Meet the Grantees.