Facilitating patient learning during medical rehabilitation: a research agenda

Although patient learning is widely acknowledged to be an integral part of many medical rehabilitation practices, it has been the subject of little systematic research. A workshop conducted August 18 to 19, 1997, was organized by the National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health) and several co-sponsoring organizations to formulate recommendations concerning learning-oriented rehabilitation practices. The recommendations and their supporting rationale are summarized in the topic areas of motor learning and control, cognitive learning, recovery of functioning, generalization and transfer of training, and applications for patients with strokes, traumatic brain injury, amputations, and infants and children.