Utilization of smartphone applications for assessment of range of motion for clinical practice : a scoping review / Rendell C. Adajar, Amiel Reden H. Allado, Jade Raphael D. Gatchalian and Jhasmine Rose V. Hernadez.

Includes appendices and bibliographical references.

Abstract: This paper is a coping review of the Utilization of Smartphone Applications for Assessment of Range of Motion (Inclinometer & Goniometer ) for Clinical Practice as smartphones have been on the rise in the medical field, mainly for communication with the healthcare team, along with gathering evidence-based practice through the internet to access timely and relevant scientific information and provide efficient & effective quality services in both developed and developing countries. With inclusion of health-assisting sensors in smartphones such as gyroscope, accelerometer, barometer and even biosensors for pulse oximetry in some high-end devices. Thus, the purpose of this research is to gather, summarize and map out evidence regarding smartphones applications that can measure the ROM of a patient accurately. Corresponding to the set of Selection Criteria, a scoping review was commenced to identify papers in the six (6) database chosen by the researches based on their use for the physical therapy practice, and their ease of use: (1) Cochrane, (2) Elsevier, (3) Google Scholar, (4) Herdin, (5) PloS & (6) PubMed/MEDLINE. PEDro, ClinicalKey, & Philippine Journal of Physical Therapy were Considered but were eventually redacted as they cater more to intervention than assessment, which in this research paper, is assessment of Range of Motion. Triangulation method was applied to the articles gathered for the screening, including title, abstract, and full-text, peer-reviewed relevant papers to increase the reliability and validity of the articles retrieved. Inductive-Thematic analysis was conducted to identify the common theme, similarities, and link related to Smartphone Applications used in the clinical practices as an assessment tool for Range of Motion and the respective joint region they are evaluating. 20 studies out of 26,438 collected data on the database have been included and deemed eligible for the final record of data. The following are the findings of the study, (1) Clinical Measurement Study is the most common research methodology/study design found, (2) more than 20 of the collected studies are journal articles and only 4 journal reports, (3) Upper and Lower Extremity yielded the same number of results from the database, with it being 11, and Ankle being the most prevalent among all studies them with seven, (4) Dr.Goniometer (DrG) and Clinometer are the more commonly used applications in the field setting done by the researches, and (5) Clinicians should establish their own reliability rate before utilizing smartphones to measure ROM as it can still have a degree of error compared to universal/standard goniometer, the error can also come from the rater/use, the patient/participant, and the measuring instrument. It is evident that various smartphone applications are now being tested for assessing ROM in clinical practice which follows for further studies to be conducted while considering the barriers that were determined in this scoping review because stronger evidence is required to justify the utilization of smartphone applications instead of UG for measuring ROM

Thesis - School of Physical Therapy