INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Tele-rehabilitation The time has come Rehabilitation, the process of restoring an individual to health or normal life through training and therapy, is a major component of health sciences. Rehabilitation services have been disrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Even with unlocking and post vaccination, some form of physical distancing is likely to be part of the new normal. This review suggests that Tele-rehabilitation (TR) will soon be a distinct standalone sub speciality of Telehealth and is here to stay. K Ganapathy, Director, Apollo Telemedicine Networking Foundation
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lobally, 2.4 billion people would benefit from some form of rehabilitation. Rehabilitation services help maintain, restore, or improve skills for Activities of Daily Life. These could have been lost or impaired because a person was sick, hurt or living with temporary or permanent disability. Illustrations of rehabilitation include exercises to improve speech, language and
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A SI A N H O S P I T A L & H EA LT HCA R E M A N AGE M E N T
communication after a brain injury and modifying home environment to improve safety and independence at home, thus reducing risk of falls. Other examples include exercise training and education for healthy living, making, fitting and educating an individual to use a prosthesis, reducing muscle stiffness for a child with cerebral palsy and training in use of a white cane, for a person with vision loss.
IS S UE - 53, 2021
Introduction to tele-rehabilitation Services
Digitalisation of healthcare is at an all-time high, as is the exponential growth of telehealth. TR is “the delivery of rehabilitation services via information and communication technologies”. Reduced access to in-person rehabilitation, secondary to the pandemic, is resulting in TR growing exponentially. Patients may be too ill to travel or have difficulty in mobility. Adverse weather conditions, challenges in identifying mutually convenient session times, household responsibilities and occupational commitments may make travelling difficult. TR services include evaluation, assessment, monitoring, prevention, intervention, supervision, education, consultation, and coaching. TR services can be deployed across patient populations and multiple healthcare settings including clinics,