About this Research Topic
The way we deliver clinical care and rehabilitation is changing. Advances in technology, and enhanced use of technology across Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy and Podiatry are promising greater management of injury and chronic disease. Practical technology is now commonplace; from robots leading exercise classes in care homes through instrumented insoles and wearables delivering performance data and biofeedback to users, to apps that deliver remote interventions in the community. Tools at our disposal now include high frequency ultrasound imaging to image the healing muscle, gravity assisted treadmills, functional electric stimulation for neurological conditions, virtual reality, and computer game-based interventions.
The science of rehabilitation now benefits from large datasets, complex algorithms and machine learning allowing the processing of routinely collected data at a systems level to inform service delivery. The way we deliver healthcare clinics is also changing with enhanced use of video communication and outreach via social media platforms.
The recent challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic have brought rapid acceleration in the use of ‘tele-rehab’ and digital health solutions and may have changed the way we deliver rehabilitation forever. This timely Frontiers in Digital Health Research Topic offers the opportunity to capture these new developments and experiences in technology enabled rehabilitation.
The goal of this Research Topic is to bring together the current state of the art in the use of digital health platforms and technology across the rehabilitation sciences; charting how we are utilizing emerging technological developments in the delivery of Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy and Podiatry.
This Research Topic focuses on research where digital health and/or state-of-the-art technologies have been applied to Podiatry, Occupational Therapy or Physiotherapy.
This could include, but is not limited to
- Tele-rehab
- Wearables
- Virtual reality and gaming technologies
- Clinical biomechanics evaluation
- Informatics
- App development
- Online data capture and
- Machine learning
Implementations or evaluations of technological solutions to deal with remote therapy consultations during COVID-19 restrictions are also welcome.
We welcome primary research articles, brief reports, communications, and review articles from researchers in academia and industry to meet the goals of this Research Topic.
Topic Editor Dr. David Hamilton has received a research grant as PI from Stryker Corporation, paid to the University of Edinburgh, and has been paid to provide educational lectures for the same company. All other Guest Editors declare no conflicts of interest.
Keywords: Rehabilitation, Physiotherapy, Wearables, Virtual Reality, Tele-Rehab, Clinical Biomechanics
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
