Objective: To provide an overview of technologies (devices, tools, or software applications) used to facilitate remote rehabilitation of adults with deconditioning, musculoskeletal conditions, stroke, or traumatic brain injury and to summarise the quantitative evidence of their efficacy.Introduction: Healthcare providers are considering how to meet longer-term rehabilitation needs of people whose health or level of activity and participation has been impacted directly or indirectly by the COVID-19 pandemic. Demands on rehabilitation services are increasing, driving a need for more services to be delivered in homes and communities. This review will identify the effectiveness of healthcare technologies that can facilitate remote rehabilitation.Inclusion criteria: This review included quantitative systematic reviews where participants were adults requiring rehabilitation for musculoskeletal conditions, stroke, traumatic brain injury or older adults requiring rehabilitation for deconditioning. Interventions included a technology and focused on recovery or rehabilitation with one of the following primary outcomes: physical activity levels, balance and/or gait, physical performance (mobility), or functional performance. Secondary outcomes included levels of pain, cognitive function, health-related quality of life and adverse effects.Methods: Five databases were searched from January 2016 to December 2020 to identify English-language publications. Critical appraisal of five systematic reviews was conducted independently by two reviewers, using the JBI critical appraisal checklist for systematic reviews and research syntheses. Data extraction was performed independently by two reviewers using a standard JBI data extraction tool. Data were summarized using a tabular format with supporting text.Results: Despite the large number of systematic reviews found in the initial search, only five met the inclusion criteria. Of these, each explored a different technology which included: wearable activity trackers, computer-based activities, non-immersive virtual reality, mobile apps, web-based rehabilitation interventions, electronic-health-based interventions (web-based or app-based with a wearable activity tracker). Computer-based activities were beneficial for improving cognitive function but showed no benefit on quality of life in post-stroke rehabilitation. Interventions that included wearable activity trackers showed mixed findings for increasing levels of physical activity for community dwelling older adults with deconditioning. Mobile apps were beneficial for increasing levels of physical activity and physical or functional performance for post-stroke rehabilitation. Web-based rehabilitation that contained a variety of components to support home exercise was not effective in improving physical performance or quality of life, reducing pain, or increasing levels of physical activity among individuals with rheumatoid arthritis. Electronic-health-based interventions (web-or app-based with a wearable activity tracker) were effect...

The objective of this project is to produce a review of available and validated technologies suitable for gathering biomechanical and functional research data in patients with osteoarthritis (OA), outside of a traditionally fixed laboratory setting. A scoping review was conducted using defined search terms across three databases (Scopus, Ovid MEDLINE, and PEDro), and additional sources of information from grey literature were added. One author carried out an initial title and abstract review, and two authors independently completed full-text screenings. Out of the total 5,164 articles screened, 75 were included based on inclusion criteria covering a range of technologies in articles published from 2015. These were subsequently categorised by technology type, parameters measured, level of remoteness, and a separate table of commercially available systems. The results concluded that from the growing number of available and emerging technologies, there is a well-established range in use and further in development. Of particular note are the wide-ranging available inertial measurement unit systems and the breadth of technology available to record basic gait spatiotemporal measures with highly beneficial and informative functional outputs. With the majority of technologies categorised as suitable for part-remote use, the number of technologies that are usable and fully remote is rare and they usually employ smartphone software to enable this. With many systems being developed for camera-based technology, such technology is likely to increase in usability and availability as computational models are being developed with increased sensitivities to recognise patterns of movement, enabling data collection in the wider environment and reducing costs and creating a better understanding of OA patient biomechanical and functional movement data.

The objective of the project was to produce a review of available and validated technology suitable for gathering biomechanical and functional research data in patients with osteoarthritis (OA), outside of a traditional fixed laboratory setting. A scoping review was conducted using defined search terms across three databases (SCOPUS, OVID MEDLINE, and PEDRO) and additional sources of information from grey literature were added. One author carried out an initial title and abstract review, and two authors independently completed full text screenings. Out of the total 5,164 articles screened, 75 were included based on inclusion criteria covering a range of technologies in articles published from 2015. These were subsequently categorised by technology type (wearables-IMUs, wearables-other, insoles/platforms and cameras) and metric (kinematic and spatiotemporal measures (SPTs), kinetic and SPTs, joint angles/ROM only and EMG), and as suitable for portable, part remote or remote use. Those technologies that are commercially available were also identified. Results concluded that from the growing number of available and emerging technologies, there is a well-established range in use. These are primarily inertial measurement units, as well as other wearables and camera-based technologies, particularly for collection of gait SPTs. Results demonstrate that biomechanical and functional remote data collection is both feasible and has growing potential for OA researchers.