Face-to-face assessment versus tele-assessment of chronic stroke patients: do the results meet the needs?

Aim: Baseline evaluation of stroke patients is valuable to manage the treatment plan. As in the case of stroke evaluation and rehabilitation, in every aspect of healthcare, tele-medicine is growing gradually. The aim of this descriptive study was to explore whether initial tele-assessment of chronic stroke patients is similar to face-to-face assessment in terms of clinical scales. Material and Method: Thirty-four chronic stroke patients (mean post-stroke duration 21.44±15.47 months; stroke etiology, 58.8% ischemic; hemiplegic side, 52.9% left; mean age 49.24±12.51; 22 males; 12 females) were included in this trial. Firstly, all the patients were evaluated online, and then at the same day they were evaluated face-to-face by the clinical scales including chair stand test, Berg balance scale, Stroke specific quality of life scale, Motricity index. Results: The findings of the present study revealed that there was no statistically significant difference between tele-assessment and face-to-face assessment for all the scales (p>0.05) except chair stand test (mean time to stand: 9.41 secs vs 8.94 secs in tele-assessment and face-to-face respectively; p<0.013). Conclusion: The authors think that tele-assessment could be performed conclusively as well as face-to-face assessment since the clinical scales used in this trial were gross motor and functional tests. These preliminary results may suggest that tele-assessment could be used for initial assessment of the post-stroke patients as a convenient tool in order to ameliorate the continuous care without disruption by location.