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. 2025 Mar 31;22(4):532.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph22040532.

Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Mobile Rehabilitation: State of the Science Conference Report-Future Directions for mRehab for People with Disabilities

John Morris  1 , Mike Jones  1 , Frank DeRuyter  1 , Amanda Rabinowitz  2 , David J Reinkensmeyer  3
Affiliations

Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Mobile Rehabilitation: State of the Science Conference Report-Future Directions for mRehab for People with Disabilities

John Morris et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

This article summarizes proceedings of the State of the Science (SOS) Conference on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Access for Mobile Rehabilitation, convened by the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Mobile Rehabilitation (mRehab RERC), which is funded by the U.S. National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR). The conference sought to assess the current state of the field and identify future research and development priorities for the field of mobile rehabilitation. The conference comprised four sessions addressing the following broad areas: (1) adherence to and effectiveness of home therapeutic exercise programs (HEPs); (2) technology for remote monitoring to support rehabilitation in the home and community (mRehab); (3) analytic techniques for using "big data" generated by remote monitoring to customize home exercise; and (4) barriers and facilitators to adoption of mRehab technology. Priorities for further research and development were identified using a three-stage process of gathering and refining expert opinions informed by the Delphi method for identifying future states in specific fields of inquiry. Results: Eight research and six technology development priorities were identified in the third and last stage of refinement of the initial set of priorities identified during the SOS Conference.

Keywords: accessibility; community participation; disability; health and function; information and communication technology; mHealth; mRehab; mobile health; rehabilitation.

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Conflict of interest statement

All authors except David J. Reinkensmeyer declare no potential conflicts of interest. Reinkensmeyer is a partial owner of Flint Rehab, whose devices and data sources were used for some of the research and development activities reported in this paper.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Research and development priorities for mobile rehabilitation: three rounds of expert input and refinement.
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