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Physiotherapy Theory and Practice
An International Journal of Physical Therapy
Volume 35, 2019 - Issue 9
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Invited Editorial

Routinely collected data as real-world evidence for physiotherapy practice

, PhD, PT, , PhD, PT & , MSc
Pages 805-809 | Received 21 Feb 2019, Accepted 11 Mar 2019, Published online: 20 Jun 2019
 

ABSTRACT

Evidence-based practice is the current undisputed predominant paradigm within medicine and allied health care, particularly in physiotherapy. Despite its potential benefits, over the years various points of criticism have been formulated one of which is the overreliance on randomized clinical trials as the highest level of evidence for treatment effectiveness. In the current era, where the availability of large amounts of clinical data gathered during the course of care delivery is rapidly increasing as well as our ability to access, process, link, and analyze these data in fairly efficient ways, alternative sources to supplement rather than replace evidence from RCTs look promising. In this Editorial, we discuss the opportunities and limitations of these routinely collected data in physiotherapy research and provide several examples from the literature. We conclude that the use of routinely collected data in physiotherapy research has the potential to increasingly contribute to real-world evidence, particularly in musculoskeletal primary care physiotherapy, provided that researchers are aware of methodological limitations and adhere to reporting standards.

Declaration of Interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

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