Version 1
: Received: 2 June 2022 / Approved: 3 June 2022 / Online: 3 June 2022 (11:12:44 CEST)
How to cite:
Bonnechère, B.; Timmermans, A.; Michiels, S. Current Technology Developments Can Improve the Quality of Research and Level of Evidence for Rehabilitation Interventions. Preprints2022, 2022060047. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202206.0047.v1
Bonnechère, B.; Timmermans, A.; Michiels, S. Current Technology Developments Can Improve the Quality of Research and Level of Evidence for Rehabilitation Interventions. Preprints 2022, 2022060047. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202206.0047.v1
Bonnechère, B.; Timmermans, A.; Michiels, S. Current Technology Developments Can Improve the Quality of Research and Level of Evidence for Rehabilitation Interventions. Preprints2022, 2022060047. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202206.0047.v1
APA Style
Bonnechère, B., Timmermans, A., & Michiels, S. (2022). Current Technology Developments Can Improve the Quality of Research and Level of Evidence for Rehabilitation Interventions. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202206.0047.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Bonnechère, B., Annick Timmermans and Sarah Michiels. 2022 "Current Technology Developments Can Improve the Quality of Research and Level of Evidence for Rehabilitation Interventions" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202206.0047.v1
Abstract
Important current limitations of the implementation of Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) in the rehabilitation field are related to the validation process of new technologies and interventions. Indeed, most of the strict guidelines that have been developed for the validation of new drugs (i.e., double or triple blinded, strict control of the doses and intensity) cannot – or only partially – be applied in rehabilitation. Well powered high quality randomized controlled trials are more difficult to organize in rehabilitation (e.g., longer duration of the intervention in rehabilitation, more difficult to standardize the intervention compared to drugs’ validation studies, limited funding’s since not sponsorized by big pharma companies), which reduces the possibility of conducting systematic reviews and meta-analyses, as currently high level of evidence is sparse. The current limitations of EBP in rehabilitation are presented in this paper and innovative solutions are suggested such as: technology-supported rehabilitation systems, continuous assessment, pragmatic trials, rehabilitation treatment specification systems, and advanced statistical methods, to tackle the limitations to increase the quality of the research in rehabilitation. The development and implementation of new technologies should increase the quality of research and the level of evidence supporting rehabilitation provided some adaptation in our research methodology.
Keywords
Rehabilitation; new technology; validation; study design; methods
Subject
Public Health and Healthcare, Physical Therapy, Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.