Rehabilitation is an old branch of medicine, but in the last few years, new telecommunication-based practices have been developed all over the world. During the last 20 years, demographic changes and increased budget allocation in public health have improved new rehabilitative practices. Thanks to these advancements, the course of human action has been considerably transformed. Today there is the possibility of controlling robots, robotic arms, or drones at a distance. Long-distance communication can be easily achieved by videoconferencing, email, and texting, to name a few. In the last few years, telemedicine applications have been increasing due to the development of new computer science technologies and of more advanced telemedical devices. The need for proper training and education of people involved in this new and emerging form of intervention for more effective treatment can’t be overstated. In this context, patients’ feedback may be important to adapt rehabilitation techniques and approaches to their needs, which would subsequently help to improve the quality of rehabilitation in the future. This study may be a starting point for improving approaches and devices for telerehabilitation. However, certain disadvantages of telerehabilitation, including skepticism on the part of patients due to remote interaction with their physicians or rehabilitators, should not be underestimated.Ĭonclusions: This review evaluated different application fields of telerehabilitation, highlighting its benefits and drawbacks. Furthermore, patients who live in remote places, where traditional rehabilitation services may not be easily accessible, can benefit from this technology. In general, telerehabilitation reduces the costs of both health care providers and patients compared with traditional inpatient or person-to-person rehabilitation. Although this field is considerably new, its use has rapidly grown in developed countries. Results: Telerehabilitation can be considered as a branch of telemedicine. Methods: We retrieved relevant information and data on telerehabilitation from books, articles and online materials using the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) “telerehabilitation,” “telemedicine,” and “rehabilitation,” as well as “disabling pathologies.” We discuss future applications of telerehabilitation techniques with an emphasis on the development of high-tech devices, and on which new tools and applications can be used in the future. Objective: The objective of this review is to provide a detailed overview of the rehabilitation techniques for remote sites (telerehabilitation) and their fields of application, with analysis of the benefits and the drawbacks related to use. Various types of telerehabilitation treatments and their relative intensities and duration have been reported.
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