Clinical databases in physical therapy.

Area of Science:

• Physical Therapy
• Health Informatics
• Clinical Research

Background:

• Clinical databases offer significant opportunities for advancing physical therapy theory and practice.
• A lack of comprehensive information on existing physical therapy clinical databases hinders their optimal utilization.
• Understanding database characteristics is crucial for leveraging their research potential.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify clinical databases used by physical therapists for patient and treatment data.
• To investigate key aspects of these databases, including data sets, output, management, and quality.
• To assess the current landscape of clinical databases in physical therapy.

Main Methods:

• A multi-pronged approach was used for database identification, including contacting professional organizations, database searches (PubMed, internet), and snowball sampling.
• The study focused on databases in North America, Australia, Israel, and Western Europe.
• A structured questionnaire was employed to gather detailed information on database characteristics.

Main Results:

• Seven clinical databases relevant to physical therapy were identified.
• Databases varied in scope, with some focusing on specific patient groups and others on all patients.
• Commonly collected data included patient characteristics, referrals, diagnoses, treatments, and closure; functional status data was also collected in some.
• Primary database purposes included quality improvement, research, and performance management.

Conclusions:

• Clinical databases represent a valuable, albeit nascent, resource for physical therapy research.
• Enhanced cooperation and data sharing among databases could unlock greater potential, enabling international comparative studies.
• Further development and standardization of clinical databases are recommended to maximize their contribution to the field.