Call for Papers: Implementation Science in Rehabilitation and Assistive Technologies
Section Description:
This section publishes research on the adoption, scale-up, and sustainability of evidence-based rehabilitation interventions and assistive technologies in real-world clinical and community settings. This includes studies that apply implementation science theories, frameworks, and strategies—including evaluation of implementation strategies and rigorous measurement and reporting of implementation outcomes—across the full translational continuum.
Related sections:
Call for Papers Details
The gap between research evidence and real-world clinical practice remains one of the most persistent challenges in rehabilitation medicine and assistive technology provision. Despite a growing body of efficacy and effectiveness research, evidence-based interventions frequently do not reach the people who may most benefit from them. Barriers span organizational readiness, workforce capacity, funding structures, policy misalignment, and user-centered adoption. Implementation science offers a rigorous theoretical and methodological framework to understand how, why, and under what conditions rehabilitation interventions and assistive technologies can be successfully adopted, scaled, and sustained across clinical and community settings.
JMIR Rehabilitation and Assistive Technologies invites submissions to this new section, bridging the science of implementation with the distinctive contexts of rehabilitation and assistive technologies. The journal editors welcome work spanning the full translational continuum, from condition-specific implementation studies (eg, in neurological, musculoskeletal, or pediatric rehabilitation) to scalability research on digital health tools, AI-assisted devices, and community-based services for aging populations and people with disabilities. We particularly encourage submissions grounded in established implementation frameworks (eg, CFIR, RE-AIM, EPIS, Knowledge-to-Action), pragmatic clinical and real-world implementation studies, co-design studies with end users and communities, and additional relevant implementation science approaches.
Example topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Barriers and facilitators to assistive technology uptake or abandonment: Applying implementation frameworks to understand why evidence-based devices go underused or discontinued
- Condition-specific implementation research: Implementation studies in neurorehabilitation, musculoskeletal, pediatric, or aging populations, with attention to what frameworks and strategies work for specific conditions and care settings
- Scale-up and spread of rehabilitation interventions: Shifting from pilot programs to system-wide adoption (eg, hybrid effectiveness-implementation designs that simultaneously evaluate clinical outcomes and implementation strategies in real-world settings)
- Co-design and user-centered implementation: Meaningful involvement of patients, caregivers, clinicians, and community partners in the design, adaptation, and evaluation of implementation strategies
- Workforce training and capacity building: Implementation strategies that focus on clinician and community partner knowledge, attitudes, and skills
- Health equity and implementation in low- and middle-income settings: Policy, health system, and inclusion factors that shape implementation across different settings
- Deimplementation approaches and best practices: Long-term maintenance of effective programs and the systematic retirement of outdated or low-value practices as new evidence becomes available
Submission and publication process:
Submit your paper to the JMIR Rehabilitation and Assistive Technologies by selecting “Implementation Science in Rehabilitation and Assistive Technologies” in the “Section” drop-down list. See the article How do I submit to a theme issue? in our Knowledge Base and consult our Instructions for Authors for more information.
All submissions will undergo a rigorous peer-review process, and accepted articles will be published as part of a special issue “Implementation Science in Rehabilitation and Assistive Technologies”
All peer-reviewed articles will be made immediately and permanently open access.
Articles will be made immediately available in JMIR Preprints (with a DOI) if the author selects this option at submission.