Hi there
From my perspective as a physiotherapist and researcher the issues I see most frequently are:
1) Physiotherapists, at least here in Australia, have little knowledge or understanding of qualitative research. We have been brought up on a diet of strictly quantitative research and the 'heirarchy of evidence', to the detriment of other research types. This means we often look at designing a study based on a research type, not on what will best answer the research question.
2) We tend to overlook clinical applicability- so often research is so focused to make it 'laboratory perfect' that real-world application is overlooked. I wonder if this is because there is often a disconnect between the academic world of universities who undertake much of the research, and clinicans who are seeing the issues in clinical practice.
3) Physiotherapist, like many health professinals, are interested in what they want to do. But research is often about understanding, not doing.
If we can start out by working out what we want to understand, consider what methodology will best develop that understanding, and dwell on how the findings might be implemented before we start, then we will see better physiotherapy research.
Hi there
From my perspective as a physiotherapist and researcher the issues I see most frequently are:
1) Physiotherapists, at least here in Australia, have little knowledge or understanding of qualitative research. We have been brought up on a diet of strictly quantitative research and the 'heirarchy of evidence', to the detriment of other research types. This means we often look at designing a study based on a research type, not on what will best answer the research question.
2) We tend to overlook clinical applicability- so often research is so focused to make it 'laboratory perfect' that real-world application is overlooked. I wonder if this is because there is often a disconnect between the academic world of universities who undertake much of the research, and clinicans who are seeing the issues in clinical practice.
3) Physiotherapist, like many health professinals, are interested in what they want to do. But research is often about understanding, not doing.
If we can start out by working out what we want to understand, consider what methodology will best develop that understanding, and dwell on how the findings might be implemented before we start, then we will see better physiotherapy research.
Hi Ratan, Thanks for the question.
Research in healthcare has predominantly evolved from medicine and the clinical trial models that we have are terribly inadequate for most PT or rehab related research. Some of the challenges for PT researchers are in ensuring blinding and control, which in the current model of clinical trial, is given greater weightage and hence quality or level of evidence for most PT interventions is week.
We also need to develop understanding about research methods other than clinical trials and choose an appropriate design based on the research question that we are trying to answer.
In India, with regard to PT research, I think there is by and large a general lack of awareness about research methodology and the importance of adherence to quality standards in research.
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