Digital Physiotherapy for Knee Osteoarthritis Versus Usual Care: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Physical therapists and physical therapist assistants who manage adults with knee osteoarthritis and who encounter telehealth, app-based, or web-based delivery of exercise and education. Physical therapist assistants work under the direction of a physical therapist; evaluation, diagnosis, and plan-of-care decisions remain with the supervising therapist.

Physical therapists, physical therapist assistants, and other licensed rehabilitation clinicians involved in conservative management of knee osteoarthritis or in remote and hybrid service delivery.

Intended audience

Physical Therapy

Level

Intermediate

Delivery format

Online, asynchronous, self-paced course: interactive reading with audio or video, and a scored post-test.

Based on

Cheung THR, Elliott MT, Stephens G, Mansfield M. Effectiveness of digital physiotherapy interventions in patients with knee osteoarthritis: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. BMJ Open. 2025;15(12):e102887. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2025-102887. PMID: 41381115. PMCID: PMC12699664.

Every finding, figure, and conclusion in this course comes from the review named above. Where the review reports uncertainty, that uncertainty is carried through rather than smoothed over, and where the authors themselves issue suggestions for clinicians or researchers, those suggestions are attributed to them.

In one sentence

Pooling 25 randomised trials in adults with knee osteoarthritis, the reviewers found moderate-quality evidence that digitally delivered physiotherapy produced a small improvement in self-reported physical function compared with standard physiotherapy care, and narrative synthesis suggested pain outcomes were at least as good as conventional care, with the strongest effects seen in the short term.

After completing this course, you will be able to:

1. Describe what the review examined and in whom, including the population of adults with knee osteoarthritis, the digital delivery formats studied, and the standard physiotherapy comparison groups used.
2. State the review's headline findings for physical function, pain, and quality of life, and name the delivery formats and intervention components the reviewers found most promising.
3. Explain the limitations the authors identified — risk of bias, inconsistency across trials, self-reported outcomes, and fading effects over longer follow-up — and distinguish them from what the authors concluded about practice.

1. Start Here: course overview, objectives, and how to earn credit
2. Podcast: Digital Physiotherapy for Knee Osteoarthritis, in Plain Language (about nine minutes)
3. Knee Osteoarthritis and the Move Toward Remote Care: What the Review Examined
4. Inside the Search: Eligible Trials, Participants, and How Certainty Was Judged
5. Function, Pain, and Quality of Life: What the Pooled Analysis Found
6. Which Digital Formats Helped, and for How Long the Benefits Lasted
7. Bias, Inconsistency, and What the Authors Concluded for Practice
8. Key Takeaways: The Five Points Worth Repeating to a Colleague
9. Post-test and course evaluation

Quinn Millington, PT, DPT, ECS is the instructor of record: the licensed clinician who reviewed this course and signed off on it. The name and credentials print on the certificate.

Disclosures. This course was developed by The ConEd Solution, which has a financial interest in its sale. No outside funding or sponsorship was received. The instructor of record has no affiliation with the authors of the source publication or their institutions.

This course awards 0.5 contact hours (30 min). How you earn them:

1. Complete the course. Every lesson, in order.
2. Pass the post-test. Score 80% or higher. Retakes are allowed.
3. Complete the evaluation. A short form rating each learning objective and the course.
4. Download your certificate. It is issued on completion and stays available in My Account.

The episode time is its measured length. Reading, post-test and evaluation times are estimates.

This course is designed to satisfy the quality requirements state boards set for continuing education. Requirements vary by state, and confirming that a course fits your renewal is up to you. Each state’s own acceptance statement is in the credit panel on this page.

1. Cheung THR, Elliott MT, Stephens G, Mansfield M. Effectiveness of digital physiotherapy interventions in patients with knee osteoarthritis: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. BMJ Open. 2025;15(12):e102887. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2025-102887. PMID: 41381115. PMCID: PMC12699664.
2. Every finding, figure, and conclusion in this course comes from the review named above. Where the review reports uncertainty, that uncertainty is carried through rather than smoothed over, and where the authors themselves issue suggestions for clinicians or researchers, those suggestions are attributed to them.
3. In one sentence
4. Pooling 25 randomised trials in adults with knee osteoarthritis, the reviewers found moderate-quality evidence that digitally delivered physiotherapy produced a small improvement in self-reported physical function compared with standard physiotherapy care, and narrative synthesis suggested pain outcomes were at least as good as conventional care, with the strongest effects seen in the short term.