If ‘virtual physiotherapy’ is unheard of, so was mass-scale working from home until early 2020. Something is better than nothing. Working from home for most have been uncomfortable due to space constraints and ergonomic workstation settings leading to increase in musculoskeletal problems.

Prolonged restrictions on movement of people by government forces workers not only to work from home but also reduces their outdoor activities. This leads to increased time being spent on a chair (that is mostly non-ergonomic) and attend virtual calls that are unnecessary and long thus compounding the effect it has on musculoskeletal health. For many employees calls are continuous without any breaks in between.

In such situations, if physiotherapy is warranted how can one get it – one cannot go out and so the physio can’t come into homes.

Online consultations were never done routinely in the past, but my doctor colleagues and I had started doing it systematically as early as in mid-1990s while working in the oilfields of Oman and made it reasonably effective and greatly useful to the patient hundreds of kilometers away. Those days it was by using telephone, history taking and fax to send any relevant information. Sometimes the farthest patient under the care of a nurse used to be 250 kilometers away.

Online consultations were never done routinely in the past, but my doctor colleagues and I had started doing it systematically as early as in mid-1990s while working in the oilfields of Oman.

Similarly, virtual physiotherapy should be done even if it is time consuming, sometimes requiring another person to help the patient and occasionally not as effective as per expectation of the physiotherapist. Something is better than nothing is a useful old adage. Imagine if the patient didn’t get physio at all – he/she would cripple faster than expected. At least virtual physiotherapy manages such situations and prevents the crippling effects that total lack of physiotherapy brings about.

If face to face physiotherapy is not available or possible, one should go for virtual physiotherapy to minimize the damage time would inflict on the body part requiring it.

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