Factors for Individualization of Therapeutic Exercises for the Design of Health-Enabling Technologies

Abstract

Designing health-enabling technologies (HETs) to support individualized physiotherapeutic exercises requires comprehensive knowledge of bio-psycho-social factors to be considered. Therefore, this review identified factors for individualization of therapeutic exercises in patients with musculoskeletal shoulder disorders in peer-reviewed articles searched in MEDLINE. The final full-text analysis included 16 of 335 search results and extracted nineteen main categories of individualization factors. The most frequently identified main categories include progression of exercises, exercise framework, and assessment. An iterative approach with constant reassessments represents the key principle for the process of individualization. Categories that are difficult to standardize were rarely mentioned, but should also be considered. The identified factors can improve the design-process of HETs by sensitizing developers, enable further formal modelling, and support communication between developers, physiotherapists, and patients.

Keywords: exercise; health-enabling technology; individualization; physical therapy.