Enhancing quality of life through telerehabilitation.
Telerehabilitation is an emerging method of delivering rehabilitation services that uses technology to serve clients, clinicians, and systems by minimizing the barriers of distance, time, and cost. The driving force for telerehabilitation has been as an alternative to face-to-face rehabilitation approaches to reduce costs, increase geographic accessibility, or act as a mechanism to extend limited resources. A rationale for telerehabilitation is the potential to enhance outcomes beyond what may result from face-to-face interventions by enabling naturalistic, in vivo interventions. There is considerable support for the value of interventions delivered in the natural environment, ranging from addressing efficacy concerns by addressing problems of generalization, to increasing patient participation, including environmental context in rehabilitation, and increasing patient satisfaction. Further clinical and research exploration should explore telerehabilitation as a tool for the delivery of rehabilitation services in vivo.
McCue
Michael
M
Department of Rehabilitation Science and Technology, University of Pittsburgh, 5040 Forbes Tower, 3600 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA. mmccue@pitt.edu
Fairman
Andrea
A
Pramuka
Michael
M
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D003695:Delivery of Health Care; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006801:Humans; D011788:Quality of Life; D012046:Rehabilitation / Q000379:methods*; D012648:Self Care; D017216:Telemedicine