Tuesday, December 19, 2017

Challenges for Adopting Virtual Rehabilitation

Report

Virtual Rehabilitation for Children: Challenges for Clinical Adoption

Glegg S

IEEE Pulse, November 16, 2017

DOI: 10.1109/MPUL.2017.2750838

Link to abstract: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8110871/

Virtual rehabilitation… “allows clinician to control the characteristics of the virtual environment while modifying the degree of challenge to suit individual patient needs”. A recent cross-Canada survey found challenges like "lack of time, funding, treatment space, appropriate patients, and support staff", along with low therapist self-efficacy. However, also reported are facilitating factors such as the capabilities of the software to accommodate patients with differing skills and availability of an evidence base to support use among other factors. Additionally, games are typically made for an older cohort than the children in pediatric rehabilitation, and that parents may want to limit children’s screen time.

"… Implementation of virtual rehabilitation technology requires support for clinicians as they learn how to optimize applications to benefit these patients."