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Introduction - Objective measurement of movements for people living with axial spondyloarthritis (SpA) are a core part of care. The necessary limitations on clinical practice imposed by the COVID pandemic have necessitated a switch to remote consultations. Regularly measuring the Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Metrology Index (BASMI) is very challenging in these remote consultations. There are a number of projects on-going to develop digital methods of completing the BASMI, but none available yet, so we felt as a group that we had to come up with something to consider to use right now for remote BASMI assessment.
Aim -To assess the feasibility and tolerability of a simple, immediately-available version of the BASMI for remote assessment and monitoring.
Materials and Methods - The committee of the “AStretch” group of specialist physiotherapists reviewed the standardised BASMI instructions and adapted for application in a remote consult. As a part of an online patient conference, the thus produced “home-BASMI” document was sent out, two weeks in advance, to all booked attendees. During the meet there were two sessions where 7 physiotherapists were available in separate “tables” to assist people with axial SpA, and their household helper, to perform the home-BASMI. Data on how long it took to perform each set of measures were collected along with feedback from those being measured, their helper and the specialist physiotherapists guiding them.
Results - 21 people with a diagnosis of axial SpA were measured using home-BASMI. All participants did have someone in their house to support them in undertaking the measures. The average time to complete the DIY-BASMI was 8 minutes.
Discussion and Conclusion - There is sufficient feedback here to continue to trial the application of this remote consult version of the BASMI. It is not a perfect situation and we suspect the measures scored in this remote manner would struggle to show sufficient correlation to face-to-face to ever consider this as a valid, reliable replacement. However, in a situation where consultations are usually remote, we have shown the feasibility and tolerability of a remote-consult version of the BASMI. This was a very small sample size and a sample of convenience; all delegates had opted to book onto the conference, and we would therefore assume that they would be more engaged with physiotherapy and its goals and purposes. It is never-the-less a useful tool to allow reflection upon current exercise and stretch routines, to support self-management and to partially evidence any gross changes (negative or positive) in spinal movements.
1 Rheumatology Department, Clinical Science Building, Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, Salford, UK. 2 Faculty of Health, Psychology and Social Care, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK. 3 Private Practitioner, Bath, UK. 4 North Lincolnshire and Goole Foundation Trust, UK. 5 Physiotherapy Department, York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, York, UK. 6 Physiotherapy/Hydrotherapy, Solent NHS Trust, Portsmouth, UK 7 Rheumatology/Physiotherapy, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK 8 Department of Physiotherapy and Paramedicine, School of Health and Life Sciences, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, UK.s Home-BASMI: feasibility and tolerability of a remote-consult, video-delivered application of the BASMI Gregory W.J 1,2, Clarke, E 3, Gaikwad, S 4, Harrison, H 5, Jeffries, C 6, Martin, M 7, McDonald, M-T 8 on behalf of the AStretch Committee.<br>
