IoT Services and Applications in Rehabilitation: An Interdisciplinary and Meta-Analysis Review

Area of Science:

• Interdisciplinary research at the intersection of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and medical/rehabilitation domains.

Background:

• The Internet of Things (IoT) offers significant opportunities for advancing e-Health and smart rehabilitation systems.
• IoT facilitates enhanced connectivity between people and technological systems for improved patient care.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review and identify works focusing on the development, architecture, application, and implementation of IoT in patient rehabilitation.
• To analyze technological equipment and systems utilized within IoT-based rehabilitation.

Main Methods:

• A systematic review methodology was employed, adhering to Kitchenham's suggestions and the PRISMA protocol.
• Comprehensive literature searches were conducted across IEEE Xplore, Web of Science, and Scopus databases.
• Data extraction focused exclusively on primary studies related to IoT and patient rehabilitation.

Main Results:

• Twenty-nine studies were identified and analyzed, addressing the research question on IoT in rehabilitation.
• All selected studies were classified based on their scientific evidence levels.

Conclusions:

• This systematic review provides a state-of-the-art overview of IoT in health rehabilitation, encompassing findings from diverse clinical applications.
• Identified gaps include the necessity for increased clinical randomized controlled trials and longitudinal studies in IoT rehabilitation research.
• The integration of wearable devices and cloud computing within IoT rehabilitation systems is a key finding.