Since early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the practice of rehabilitation has had to adapt as in-person therapy has been cancelled or modified, staff have been redeployed and survivors of COVID-19 need rehabilitation to continue their recovery. Sharing research on these new interventions will enhance the ability of all who work in the area of rehabilitation to provide the most appropriate care. JMIR Rehabilitation and Assistive Technologies is welcoming manuscripts on new and innovative research. Priority will be given to original research as well as review papers. Editorials and perspectives will be considered only after pre-approval for submission from the editor. Authors are welcome at any time before submission to receive feedback and input on their paper ideas from the editor or editorial board.

Possible topics include:

Adapting rehabilitation to prevent the spread of COVID-19 (e.g., use of PPE, how to implement physical distancing)
Treatment of patients recovering from COVID-19
The use of novel rehabilitation techniques or assistive technologies to deliver care at this time (ex. telerehabilitation)
Shifts in patient presentation (e.g., the change in the type of cardiac conditions seen because patients are delaying care)

Other JMIR journals are also soliciting COVID19 papers which will be reviewed and published within 2-3 weeks.

All articles submitted to this theme issue will be shared and published rapidly through the following mechanisms:

JMIR Preprints are immediately available after submission (with DOI); authors should select the preprint option on submission. Preprints already submitted to MedRxiv can be transmitted to JMH via the M2J interface
Free fast-tracking, rapid peer-review, and publication within 1-3 weeks
Free “PubMed Now!” feature, ensuring that the paper is submitted to and searchable on PubMed within 24 hours after acceptance (fees are waived)
Accelerated production timelines upon APF payment after acceptance
All peer-reviewed research publications in this theme issue are immediately and permanently made open access—this is of course the standard for JMIR journals
Special tagging of the XML of the published paper for priority release on PubMed Central (in collaboration with NCBI)

Questions regarding this Theme Issue should be directed to Lisa Sheehy(Guest Editor), LSheehy@bruyere.org or the editorial team at ed-support@jmir.org.

How to submit

Please submit to JMIR Rehabilitation and Assistive Technologies by selecting "Special Theme Issue/e-Collection 2020: The Influence of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Rehabilitation” in the "Section" drop-down list.

See also “How do I submit to a theme issue?” in our knowledge base.

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