Applying the Rehabilitation Treatment Specification System in Rehabilitation: A Scoping Review

To characterize the extent and contexts in which the Rehabilitation Treatment Specification System (RTSS) and its predecessor, the Rehabilitation Treatment Taxonomy (RTT), have been applied in the field of rehabilitation.

Electronic databases (eg, PubMed, Cumalative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature [CINAHL]) were searched. All articles were collated in the Covidence database.

To be included in this scoping review, the studies had to be specific to rehabilitation and mention the RTT or RTSS and/or a combination of concepts of RTT/RTSS such as ingredients, targets, and mechanisms of action. Reviewers screened the titles, abstracts and full-text articles for eligibility. A total of 1929 sources were identified, and 71 full text articles were included.

Random pairs of reviewers used a data extraction form to collect information about each article. Any discrepancies were resolved through discussion by the 2 reviewers, a third reviewer, or with additional reviewers until agreement was achieved.

Results revealed that less than half of the 71 included publications applied the RTSS to specify rehabilitation treatments. A variety of relevant study characteristics were reported, including RTSS contexts of its application (eg, disciplines of authors, use of key terms/concepts, target clinical conditions).

The RTSS has reached a global audience, but many of the references to the RTSS in the literature cite concepts from the RTSS without performing actual specifications of treatments. There remains considerable work to be done in terms of quality and comprehensiveness of intervention specifications as well as RTSS application across different areas of rehabilitation practice.