Neurological Disorders constitute a significant burden in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Limited access to rehabilitation, paucity of evidence for neurological rehabilitation, and priority to preventive aspects in LMICs have been the neglected reasons for this burden (1). The application of technologies to address unmet needs has been found relevant. Therefore, the editors proposed to gain useful insights on this topic. Four articles were included to describe the status of this topic.
From the articles published on this topic, it is clear that the development of technological innovations for neurological rehabilitation in LMICs is rapidly emerging. The systematic approach to co-design, co-production, development, and evaluation is evident. The methods to generate and bridge the gaps in evidence on the needs and perspectives of caregivers as well as care providers were explored in-depth (Sidek, Kamalakannan et al.). Technological innovations for rehabilitation were considered important, and they primarily targeted the communities, particularly when people with neurological disabilities were discharged from hospitals to the community where neurological rehabilitation services were hardly available (2).
However, we could only indirectly understand the cost implications of these technological innovations. Given the diverse range of disabilities following neurological disability and inaccessibility to rehabilitation services in LMICs, cost is an important implication. Articles on this topic published by Sidek, Tengku Ismail et al. and Kamalakannan et al., talk about advanced technology optimizing virtual reality, and asynchronous and synchronous digital solutions. These innovations seem expensive, particularly in the context of LMICs where available rehabilitation services are not government-funded, and consumers must access them by spending from their pocket with significant opportunity cost. Hence there is a definitive need to consider the cost of not just developing a technological innovation but also the cost implications of integration and implementation of these technologies in LMICs (3).
Overall, the evidence on technologies for neurological rehabilitation is in its nascent stages in LMICs and it is aimed at bridging the gaps in access to services. The cost implications are yet to be explored in these contexts, but it provides a clear implication for high-income countries to consider the cost for aspects related to the implementation and integration of these digital solutions to be scalable. If economic evaluations on digital solutions could be achieved, the paucity of evidence for optimizing these scalable digital solutions for neuro-rehabilitation could be bridged worldwide.
Statements
Author contributions
SK: Conceptualization, Resources, Supervision, Validation, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. BM: Conceptualization, Supervision, Validation, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. JS: Conceptualization, Supervision, Validation, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. KM: Conceptualization, Supervision, Visualization, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing.
Funding
The author(s) declare that no financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Acknowledgments
We thank the reviewers and the editorial team for their support in review and publication of manuscripts on this Research Topic.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision.
Publisher’s note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
References
1.
Sebastian IA Demers M Yeghiazaryan N Asyraf W Nasrelden A Gopaul U et al . Establishing organized stroke care in low-and middle-income countries: from training of non-specialist to implementation. J Stroke Med. (2023) 6:46–51. 10.1177/25166085231158425
2.
Kamalakannan S Gudlavalleti Venkata M Prost A Natarajan S Pant H Chitalurri N et al . Rehabilitation needs of stroke survivors after discharge from hospital in India. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. (2016) 97:1526–32.e9. 10.1016/j.apmr.2016.02.008
3.
Turner-Stokes L Bill A Dredge R . A cost analysis of specialist inpatient neurorehabilitation services in the UK. Clin Rehabil. (2012) 26:256–63. 10.1177/0269215511417469
Summary
Keywords
digital technology (DT), neuro rehabilitation, low- and middle-income countries, low-cost, interventions-long term/chronic illness
Citation
Kamalakannan S, Menon B, Solomon JM and Musa KI (2023) Editorial: Evidence on low-cost technologies for neurological rehabilitation in low and middle-income countries. Front. Neurol. 14:1323808. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2023.1323808
Received
18 October 2023
Accepted
22 November 2023
Published
13 December 2023
Volume
14 - 2023
Edited and reviewed by
Giorgio Sandrini, Fondazione Cirna Onlus, Italy
Updates
Copyright
© 2023 Kamalakannan, Menon, Solomon and Musa.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Sureshkumar Kamalakannan suresh.kumar@lshtm.ac.uk; sureshkumar.kamalakannan@northumbria.ac.uk
†ORCID: Sureshkumar Kamalakannan orcid.org/0000-0003-4407-7838
John M. Solomon orcid.org/0000-0002-0828-6977
Disclaimer
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.