Remote Musculoskeletal Assessment Framework: A Guide for Primary Care

Introduction Remote consulting has exploded into primary care following the initial COVID-19 surge as a measure to reduce potential cross-infection (staff-patient or patient-patient). Musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions comprise up to 21% of the annual primary care caseload in England. Established techniques for MSK examination, however, rely on face-to-face attendance. Evidence-based guidance for remote MSK assessment is required to ensure the quality of care is maintained with the move from face-to-face to virtual consultations. Method A literature review of published evidence and current guidelines was conducted. The most appropriate remote consultation techniques and MSK examinations were identified and where there was no evidence, modified examination tests were developed from established face-to-face examination techniques. A concise, accessible framework for remote MSK assessment in primary care was then created and tested on a non-medically trained volunteer. Results Over 2232 papers and articles were identified by search headings, reducing to 28 sources that had relevant content. At the time of searching, there was no published evidence relating to MSK remote consultation in a primary care setting. However, evidence was found in the physiotherapy and rehabilitation literature for the efficacy and practicality of MSK teleconsultation. MSK remote examination framework From this literature and with the addition of modified established examinations, an MSK assessment framework was constructed. This framework provides pre-consultation guidance and step-by-step remote examination instructions. Patient and clinician resources (including a patient information leaflet and photographic examples of examinations) were created as supplementary material. Conclusion Due to the frameshift away from face-to-face consultation, primary care clinicians have found themselves lacking an evidence base or practical guidance to support remote MSK assessment. This paper is a systematic literature review of MSK telemedicine from which practical advice and evidence-based MSK tests have been developed. Where there is no evidence, modified traditional tests are suggested to allow a complete framework for remote MSK examination - using a system approach of ‘look, point, move’ followed by modified special tests, for use in a primary care setting as a ‘ready-to-use’ practical guide to remote MSK assessment, presented in a downloadable format. What did this add? With 21% of primary care consultations relating to MSK conditions and limited means of performing face-to-face MSK examination due to COVID-19, there needs to be a recognised framework for assessing the MSK system remotely. To the best of our knowledge, this evidence does not exist for primary care remote MSK examination. This paper demonstrates evidence-based practical advice (from non-primary care settings) and modified MSK examinations to be used in a primary care MSK remote consultation.