Objective Virtual care for chronic conditions has seen uptake due to COVID-19.Evaluation of virtual models is important to ensure evidence-based practice.There is a paucity of research in the use of virtual care for Capturing COVID-19–Like Symptoms at Scale Using Banner Ads on an Online News Platform: Pilot Survey Study management of chronic back disorders.The objective of this study was to evaluate effectiveness of a team-based virtual care model for back disorder assessment where a physical therapist uses virtual care to join a nurse practitioner and patient in a rural Saskatchewan, copyright community.Methods Sixty-four rural adults with chronic back disorders were randomly allocated to receive either: (1) team-based virtual care ( n = 24); (2) care from an urban physical therapist travelling to community ( n = 20); or (3) care from a rural nurse practitioner ( n = 20).
The team-based care group involved a nurse practitioner located with a rural patient, and a physical therapist joining using virtual care.The physical therapist alone and the nurse practitioner alone groups received in-person assessments.Groups with a physical therapist involved Task-Specific Transformer-Based Language Models in Health Care: Scoping Review had follow-up treatments by in-person physical therapy.Outcomes over six months included pain, disability, back beliefs, satisfaction, quality-adjusted health status and management-related costs.Results There were no significant differences for pain, disability, back beliefs and satisfaction between groups.
The average cost per patient for implementing in-person physical therapist assessment ($135) was higher compared with the team over virtual care ($118) and NP care ($59).Conclusion Primary outcomes were not different by group.Physical therapist alone was more costly than other groups.Future research should include more participants, longer follow-up time and refined cost parameters.Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.
gov NCT02225535; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02225535 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6lqLTCNF7 ).