ArticleBMC medical education2026
Academics' and clinicians' perspectives on telehealth integration in Saudi rehabilitation education.
Article in BMC medical education, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundTelehealth is increasingly embedded within healthcare delivery, yet its implementation in rehabilitation education in Saudi Arabia remains limited and inconsistently implemented. Understanding the perspectives of academics and clinicians is essential for informing curriculum reform. This study examined perceptions of telehealth teaching and training among rehabilitation academics and clinicians in Saudi Arabia.
methodsA cross-sectional online survey using convenience sampling was completed by academics (n = 56) and clinicians (n = 144) across rehabilitation disciplines. Participants who were currently teaching or practicing in Saudi Arabia were eligible. Descriptive statistics and Chi-square tests were used to compare familiarity, use, and attitudes toward telehealth education.
resultsMost respondents (> 75%) supported incorporating telehealth into undergraduate rehabilitation curricula and endorsed hands-on training for developing telehealth competencies. Academics expressed significantly stronger support for curricular integration than clinicians (χ²=12.49, p = .002). Prior exposure to telehealth was significantly associated with greater support for inclusion (p < .05). The most frequently cited barriers were that telehealth course inclusion had not been previously discussed and limited awareness of supporting research, whereas technological infrastructure was reported less often.
conclusionsThese findings indicate broad support for telehealth education among rehabilitation professionals in Saudi Arabia, while highlighting a gap between perceived importance and curricular readiness shaped by prior exposure and resource availability. The results highlight the need for faculty development, investment in digital infrastructure, and collaborative academic-clinical planning to ensure telehealth competencies are systematically embedded into rehabilitation training. Collectively, this study provides foundational evidence to inform national curriculum reform and digital health workforce development aligned with Saudi Arabia's digital health transformation efforts.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.