Background: Patient-centered design that addresses patientsââ?¬â?¢ preferences and needs is considered an important aim for improving\nhealth care systems. At present, within the field of pain rehabilitation, patientsââ?¬â?¢ preferences regarding telerehabilitation remain\nscarcely explored and little is known about the optimal combination between human and electronic contact from the patientsââ?¬â?¢\nperspective. In addition, limited evidence is available about the best way to explore patientsââ?¬â?¢ preferences. Therefore, the assessment\nof patientsââ?¬â?¢ preferences regarding telemedicine is an important step toward the design of effective patient-centered care.\nObjective: To identify which telerehabilitation treatment options patients with chronic pain are most likely to accept as alternatives\nto conventional rehabilitation and assess which treatment attributes are most important to them.\nMethods: A discrete choice experiment with 15 choice tasks, combining 6 telerehabilitation treatment characteristics, was\ndesigned. Each choice task consisted of 2 hypothetical treatment scenarios and 1 opt-out scenario. Relative attribute importance\nwas estimated using a bivariate probit regression analysis. One hundred and thirty surveys were received, of which 104 were\nusable questionnaires; thus, resulting in a total of 1547 observations.\nResults: Physician communication mode, the use of feedback and monitoring technology (FMT), and exercise location were\nkey drivers of patientsââ?¬â?¢ treatment preferences (P<.001). Patients were willing to accept less frequent physician consultation offered\nmainly through video communication, provided that they were offered FMT and some face-to-face consultation and could exercise\noutside their home environment at flexible exercise hours. Home-based telerehabilitation scenarios with minimal physician\nsupervision were the least preferred. A reduction in health care premiums would make these telerehabilitation scenarios as attractive\nas conventional clinic-based rehabilitation.\nConclusions: ââ?¬Å?Intermediateââ?¬Â telerehabilitation treatments offering FMT, some face-to-face consulting, and a gym-based exercise\nlocation should be pursued as promising alternatives to conventional chronic pain rehabilitation. Further research is necessary to\nexplore whether strategies other than health care premium reductions could also increase the value of home telerehabilitation\ntreatment.
Loading....