Evidence-based rehabilitation medicine: definition, foundation, practice and development

Area of Science:

• Rehabilitation Medicine
• Evidence-Based Practice
• Medical Research Development

Background:

• Evidence-based rehabilitation medicine (EBRM) integrates clinical expertise with the best available research evidence.
• Understanding the current state and developmental trajectory of EBRM subspecialties is crucial for strategic advancement.
• A comprehensive analysis is needed to identify areas of robust development and those requiring further focus within EBRM.

Purpose of the Study:

• To define, establish the foundation, describe the practice, and analyze the development of evidence-based rehabilitation medicine (EBRM).
• To identify the future development direction for EBRM.
• To assess the developmental balance across various EBRM subspecialties.

Main Methods:

• Systematic literature search across major databases (PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, CNKI, Wanfang, CSTJ) from inception to June 2023.
• Keywords: "rehabilitation medicine and evidence based" (English and Chinese).
• Analysis of 127 included articles to summarize EBRM's definition, foundation, practice, and development, categorizing by subspecialty.

Main Results:

• Evidence-based musculoskeletal rehabilitation medicine (EBMRM), evidence-based neurorehabilitation medicine (EBNM), and evidence-based education rehabilitation medicine (EBEDRM) are relatively well-developed.
• Development is uneven across 14 EBRM subspecialties, with EBMRM (31 articles), EBNM (34 articles), and EBEDRM (17 articles) showing the most activity.
• Slower development observed in nursing, engineering, Traditional Chinese Medicine, internal medicine, intensive care, geriatric, oncology, cardiopulmonary, physical therapy, speech therapy, and occupational therapy rehabilitation medicine subspecialties.

Conclusions:

• The development of EBRM subspecialties is unbalanced, with significant disparities in research output and focus.
• Future efforts in EBRM should prioritize and direct more attention towards the under-developed subspecialties.
• Strategic investment and research focus are needed to foster balanced growth across all areas of evidence-based rehabilitation medicine.