JMIR Rehabilitation and Assistive Technologies

Stroke is a leading cause of disability and death, resulting in a clinical, social, and economic burden upon families and the health system worldwide.

Rehabilitation health care providers (HCPs) report high levels of burnout. Self-compassion interventions have shown beneficial effects on HCP burnout, but they have never been explored in specialist rehabilitation settings where challenges may differ.

As individuals with HIV live longer, many now face the health consequences of aging and multimorbidity, known as disability. Exercise can mitigate disability; however, engagement in exercise among adults living with HIV varies. Technology-based interventions, such as telerehabilitation, may help mitigate geographical, financial, and time barriers to community-based exercise (CBE). However, little is known about the experiences with technology uptake and usage among adults living with HIV. Understanding these experiences is essential to inform the design of inclusive, accessible, and sustainable online interventions.

Serious games have become an alternative support for traditional physical therapy. However, many of these games do not address the emotional needs of patients. People with disabilities often experience emotions such as sadness, frustration, and even anger, which can create a barrier to their rehabilitation treatment.

Exercise therapy is fundamental to rehabilitation for knee osteoarthritis and anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction, yet adherence to prescribed exercise typically declines once clinical supervision ends. Digital rehabilitation platforms offer a promising means of supporting sustained exercise adherence, but qualitative evidence on how patients experience these platforms in real-world clinical practice remains limited, particularly in non-Western health care contexts.

Despite considerable advancements in prosthetic technology, a substantial proportion of lower limb amputees reduce or discontinue prosthesis use, with reported nonuse rates ranging from 12% to 53%. This reflects the multifactorial challenges associated with long-term prosthetic use, among which comfort and skin health are consistently identified as key determinants. More specifically, studies point toward nonbreathable silicone liners trapping heat and sweat, leading to skin and hygiene problems. These persistent limitations underscore the need for alternative interface materials that offer improved breathability, moisture management, and tunable mechanical properties.

Various forms of electrical stimulation have been integrated into the multimodal management of spasticity. However, high-frequency electrical stimulation can potentially induce muscle fatigue. The Exopulse Mollii Suit (EMS) is a multichannel full-body garment that delivers low-frequency (20 Hz), low-amplitude (20 V), subthreshold sensory stimulation aimed at reducing spasticity.

Digital assessment technologies, such as optical motion capture and inertial measurement units, enable detailed kinematic analysis and continuous monitoring of upper limb activity in persons with neurological conditions. While such are increasingly recognized in research, their uptake in clinical neurorehabilitation is limited. It remains unclear which clinicians perceive as most meaningful and how these are integrated into patient-centered care. Understanding clinicians’ information needs and reasoning processes is a prerequisite for implementing digital assessment technology.

Exergames integrate motor, cognitive, and postural-control demands; however, how specific task-demand manipulations influence gaze allocation during exergame performance remains insufficiently characterized.

An increasing amount of digital health data are being collected across rehabilitation settings, but their integration into routine clinical practice remains limited, despite its potential to motivate patients or inform clinical decision-making. Specifically, effective visualization and communication of assessment outcomes to both patients and health care practitioners (HCPs) represent a key gap in the neurorehabilitation practice.

Children with hearing impairments (HIs) have traditionally faced difficulties with language acquisition due to various factors, such as difficulties in accessing early intervention and therapy, among others. There is an opportunity for digital technology to address this problem; however, how different technologies can facilitate language acquisition, as well as the level of evidence, is not well understood.

Although patient outcomes are improved by stroke rehabilitation, the suggested amount of therapy is rarely maintained. The COVID-19 pandemic aggravated this situation further due to disruptions in health care. One solution was the rapid and extensive transition to virtual care. A hybrid outpatient stroke telerehabilitation program (HOSTP) was introduced by St John’s Rehab—a tertiary rehabilitation hospital in Toronto, Ontario. The HOSTP integrated in-person and virtual care in an effort to alleviate long-standing obstacles that challenge stroke rehabilitation.