Video-based musculoskeletal examination of the foot and ankle: a scoping review

Virtual healthcare consultations are increasingly common in health care, driven by digital health advances and the need for accessible care. Video-based consultations offer opportunities to perform musculoskeletal assessments remotely, but reliable procedures for examination of foot and ankle problems, a common musculoskeletal complaint, remain insufficiently described. Mapping the existing literature can clarify current practices, highlight gaps, and guide future research and implementation in digital musculoskeletal care.

The aim of this scoping review was to map existing research on video-based musculoskeletal examination of the foot and ankle and to describe the examination procedures reported in the literature.

The review followed established guidance by Arksey and O'Malley and the Joanna Briggs Institute. Searches were conducted in three databases: PubMed, Scopus, and CINAHL. Article screening and selection were performed independently by two authors. Only peer-reviewed articles were included.

The database search yielded 1,018 records after duplicates were removed. After screening of titles and abstracts, 45 articles were retrieved in fulltext, 15 of which were finally included. Study designs varied from commentary articles to randomized controlled trials. Most studies were published between 2019 and 2024 and spanned diverse healthcare settings in six countries, mostly the United States. Several studies examined reliability or agreement between video and face-to-face formats, or described video-based musculoskeletal foot and ankle examination in the form of a guide. Nine articles described procedures for conducting the video-based examination, from individual components to full examination.

This scoping review demonstrates that the literature describing video-based musculoskeletal examination of the foot and ankle is heterogeneous in both study design and the level of procedural detail reported. The findings suggest that, although requiring a certain level of digital health literacy among both patients and clinicians, video-based musculoskeletal foot and ankle assessment could represent a feasible alternative to the face-to-face format, but the current limited evidence precludes drawing any firm conclusions. Key gaps include limited descriptions of standardized examination procedures and limited evidence regarding which patient groups are most appropriate for video-based assessment. Further research is needed to develop and evaluate reliable video-based examination protocols and to better understand how digital health literacy and communication factors influence the use and implementation of video-based musculoskeletal assessment of the foot and ankle.The scoping review protocol was preregistered on 25 February 2025 on the Open Science Framework Registry (registration 9w657), available at: https://osf.io/k9gcf/?view_only=7ae36b1c3eb84d719f628ef01fc46cca.