Table 2.

Themes, subthemes, and supporting quotations.

Theme	Subtheme	Supporting quotations
Professional challenges	The diagnostic challenge	Sometimes I had patients [I diagnosed remotely] who I felt that they were not making progress as I would've liked them to, and I don't want to miss anything so I would tell them that I would like them to come and get a more thorough examination (#7).
	The treatment challenge	It's like going out of your comfort zone and providing care while you're limited by the tools that you can use: without touching, without needling (dry needling), without taping (kinesiotape therapy) … nothing … Just instructions and exercises (#2).
	The transition from touching to speaking	At first, I missed touching patients. I wanted to use my hands and make their movement more accurate but in time I felt that I can make their movement more accurate using words. I improved and learned to use images, like, not saying “raise your leg higher” but “climb a stair” (#17).
Digital care divide	The technological barrier	You need your equipment to get it right … but also the patients. It requires digital literacy and a technological understanding, and with older people. Every session, I need to recheck if they have access [to the Internet] or not and we just waste a lot of time on that … it's not so simple for everyone (#7).
	Noncompliance	Some people don't get along with telehealth physical therapy … There are chronic patients who come only for the physical touch. They do their exercises and they are active and do everything right and still have pain, so they come so you will touch them and ease their pain a little (#2).
	Patient selection	I think that if a patient is willing to have a phone session, in my experience, then I can say that they are usually in a better shape and more prone to telehealth that requires more instructions and … in advance they know what it means and that they will get more instructions, more exercises … I think that hard-core patients go to the clinic … those with chronic pain or maybe those after surgery (#1).
Patient-therapist communication	Staying connected	I like it because it allows you to connect with people without geographic restrictions. I mean, I have patients from all over the country … We had group sessions for elderly patients in the US and in all sorts of places and it's amazing! It crosses mountains, it crosses borders, it has an amazing force (#5).
	Alienation	It makes the treatment more mechanical because when you are in front of a person you have all the fine-tuned gestures that don't exist [in telehealth]. In the end, you sit in front of your camera, and she [the patient] sits in front of hers … I don't know, I felt distant (#9).
	Limited information	When they're in front of you, you can see their faces, their eyes, you can tell to what degree she's with you or not with you. On the phone there's silence and you don't know! Is she bored or is she taking in what I just said? It's much harder to analyze without the visual face of the patient (#6).
	Enhanced information	In retrospect, for me, in my interactions with patients, in my ability to ask questions and say certain things, the fact that there's a little distance because of the screen made the conversation more fluent … It works also in the clinic but on Zoom it was easier! (#14)