Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Mobile Rehabilitation: State of the Science Conference Report—Future Directions for mRehab for People with Disabilities

TL;DR

This paper summarizes a conference on mobile rehabilitation technology, identifying research and development priorities for improving rehabilitation for people with disabilities.

Contribution

The paper presents eight research and six technology development priorities for advancing mobile rehabilitation through expert consensus.

Findings

Eight research priorities were identified for future mobile rehabilitation studies.

Six technology development priorities were determined to enhance mRehab solutions.

Barriers and facilitators to adopting mRehab technology were discussed.

Abstract

This article summarizes proceedings of the State of the Science (SOS) Conference on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Access for Mobile Rehabilitation, convened by the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Mobile Rehabilitation (mRehab RERC), which is funded by the U.S. National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR). The conference sought to assess the current state of the field and identify future research and development priorities for the field of mobile rehabilitation. The conference comprised four sessions addressing the following broad areas: (1) adherence to and effectiveness of home therapeutic exercise programs (HEPs); (2) technology for remote monitoring to support rehabilitation in the home and community (mRehab); (3) analytic techniques for using “big data” generated by remote monitoring to customize home exercise; and (4) barriers and facilitators to adoption of mRehab technology. Priorities for further research and development were identified using a three-stage process of gathering and refining expert opinions informed by the Delphi method for identifying future states in specific fields of inquiry. Results: Eight research and six technology development priorities were identified in the third and last stage of refinement of the initial set of priorities identified during the SOS Conference.

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