Overcoming language barriers to provide telerehabilitation for COVID-19 patients: a two-case report

ABSTACTPurpose This report presents two cases of successful telerehabilitation delivery for patients quarantined due to COVID-19. One of the patients did not speak the therapists' language, whereas the other presented complete deafness. Materials and Methods We assembled a telerehabilitation system using commercial applications, including a remote-control application that minimizes the need for patient's input. The telerehabilitation comprised a combination of video calls with a physical therapist and a 20-minute exercise video. The first case was of a 72-year-old man who could only speak Cantonese, a language that none of the service providers could speak, making communication difficult. Therefore, telerehabilitation was provided using Google Translate to simultaneously translate the therapist's instructions in Japanese to Cantonese. The second case involved a 49-year-old man with neurofibromatosis and complete deafness. In this case, communication during the exercise programme was achieved using 25 cue cards that were prepared in advance and used to convey instructions. The patients' satisfaction was assessed using either of a simple three-item questionnaire (Case 1) or the Telemedicine Satisfaction Questionnaire with five additional items (Case 2). Results In both cases, the exercise programme was successfully conducted, and the patients reported being highly satisfied with the programme. Conclusions Communication barriers can impede telerehabilitation therapy; this problem is aggravated when the recipients cannot receive on-site education for device operation and exercise performance in advance due to COVID-19 restrictions. However, the use of supplementary methodologies may contribute to solving these issues, further expanding the coverage and applicability of telerehabilitation.

Automated summary

Two successful telerehabilitation cases were presented in this report, one facing language barrier and the other complete deafness. The language barrier was overcome using Google Translate, while cue cards were used for the deaf patient. Both patients expressed high satisfaction with the telerehabilitation programme, emphasizing the importance of using supplementary methodologies to overcome communication barriers.