JMIR Rehabilitation and Assistive Technologies

The high incidence and prevalence of upper limb impairment post-stroke highlights the need for advancements in rehabilitation. Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) represent a promising technology by directly training the central nervous system. The integration of motor imagery (MI) and motor observation (MO) through virtual reality (VR) using BCIs provides valuable opportunities for rehabilitation. However, the diversity in intervention designs demonstrates the lack of guiding recommendations integrating neurorehabilitation principles for BCI.

People with moderate to severe intellectual disability can have difficulties accessing leisure stimuli and engaging in basic cognitive and physical activity independently. These difficulties may be even more marked in individuals with a combination of intellectual disability and sensory or sensory-motor impairments.

Providing integrated care is essential in pediatric rehabilitation, as children with disabilities often navigate complex, long-term pathways involving multiple professionals across health, education, and community services. Strengthening communication and partnership among children, families, and professionals is key to supporting meaningful participation in daily life. Shared digital health portals offer a promising solution to support integrated care, yet their potential remains underexplored in this context.

Digitalisation is seen as a way to reduce the negative environmental impacts of healthcare production, but research is still limited.

Freezing of gait (FOG) is a common and debilitating symptom of parkinsonism. Although visual cues have proven efficacy in alleviating FOG, most current visual cues are fixed in place, restricting their use to controlled environments such as clinics or homes. Mobile open-loop cueing devices have been developed to address this limitation; however, they typically require manual activation to deliver the visual cues, which can be particularly challenging for patients with attention or cognitive impairments, leading to equivocal results in improving gait performance.

The rising prevalence of Parkinson disease and the growing demand on the health care system underscore the need for accessible and innovative care solutions, such as Reality Digital Therapeutics (Reality DTx)—an augmented reality neurorehabilitation program that delivers remotely prescribed gait and balance exercises for people with Parkinson disease to perform at home.

Technology-assisted and robotic rehabilitation methods are increasingly used. Still, scarce evidence exists on their effects on upper extremity functioning after spinal cord injury, especially at chronic stage.

Falls and fear of falling adversely affect the quality of life and independence of older adults. Although various robotic systems have been developed for fall prevention, their psychological effects, particularly on self-efficacy, remain underexplored. A ceiling-mounted fall impact mitigation robot offers continuous protection with almost no limitations on the range of movement; however, its impact on users' psychological state and functional performance is unclear.

Digital platforms and smartphone apps have the potential to help patients with musculoskeletal conditions receive targeted interventions and physiotherapy support at home. As musculoskeletal conditions are much more prevalent in older age, it is important to investigate whether these technologies can be used by this demographic, with often lower digital literacy than younger adults.

Videoconference combines the convenience of home-based physical exercise (PE) with group interaction and supervision of exercise in the community and could be useful for facilitating PE practice among older adults.

Over the past decade, the proportion of the world’s population aged ≥65 years has grown exponentially, presenting significant challenges, such as social isolation and loneliness among this population. Assistive technologies have shown potential in enhancing the quality of life for older adults by improving their physical, cognitive, and communication abilities. Research has shown that smart televisions are user-friendly and commonly used among older adults. However, smart televisions have been underutilized as assistive technologies.

Socially assistive robotics (SARs) are robotic technology platforms equipped with sensing (e.g. through audio or visual) and acting (e.g. speech and movement) capabilities to interact socially with users. SARs are increasingly adopted in physiotherapy to aid patients in their rehabilitation journey by providing feedback, motivation, and encouragement. However, while many studies have explored SAR implementation in physiotherapy, research involving clinical populations remains scarce, and the overall state of SAR deployment is unclear.