Miller Allison E, Holleran Carey L, Bland Marghuretta D, Fitzsimmons-Craft Ellen E, Newman Caitlin A, Maddox Thomas M, Lang Catherine E
Program in Physical Therapy, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, United States.
Department of Neurology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, United States.
Front Digit Health. 2025 Apr 28;7:1534419. doi: 10.3389/fdgth.2025.1534419. eCollection 2025.
Rehabilitation is facing a critical practice gap: Patients seek out rehabilitation services to improve their activity in daily life, yet recent work demonstrates that rehabilitation may be having a limited impact on improving this outcome due to lack of objective data on patients' activity in daily life. Remote monitoring using wearable sensor technology is a promising solution to this address this gap. The purpose of this study was to understand patient and clinician awareness of the practice gap and preferences for integrating wearable sensor technology into rehabilitation care.
This study used a mixed-methods approach consisting of surveys and 1:1 interviews with clinicians (physical and occupational therapists or assistants) employed at an outpatient rehabilitation clinic within an academic medical center and patients seeking care at this clinic. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis.
Data saturation was reached from nineteen clinicians and ten patients. Both clinicians and patients recognized the importance of measuring activity outside the clinic and viewed wearable sensor technology as an objective measurement tool. Most clinicians (63%) preferred continuous (vs. intermittent) monitoring within a care episode and most patients (60%) were willing to sync their sensor data as often as instructed by their provider. To maximize integration into clinical workflows, clinicians voiced a preference for availability of sensor data in the electronic health record.
Clinicians and patients value the use of wearable sensor technology to improve measurement of activity outside the clinic environment and expressed preferences for how this technology could best be integrated into routine rehabilitation care.
康复治疗面临着一个关键的实践差距：患者寻求康复服务以改善其日常生活活动能力，但最近的研究表明，由于缺乏关于患者日常生活活动的客观数据，康复治疗对改善这一结果的影响可能有限。使用可穿戴传感器技术进行远程监测是解决这一差距的一个有前景的方法。本研究的目的是了解患者和临床医生对这一实践差距的认识，以及他们对将可穿戴传感器技术整合到康复护理中的偏好。
本研究采用混合方法，包括对一家学术医疗中心门诊康复诊所的临床医生（物理治疗师、职业治疗师或助理）和在该诊所寻求治疗的患者进行调查和一对一访谈。使用描述性统计和主题分析对数据进行分析。
来自19名临床医生和10名患者的数据达到了饱和。临床医生和患者都认识到在诊所外测量活动的重要性，并将可穿戴传感器技术视为一种客观的测量工具。大多数临床医生（63%）更喜欢在一个护理期间进行连续（而非间歇性）监测，大多数患者（60%）愿意按照提供者的指示尽可能频繁地同步他们的传感器数据。为了最大限度地整合到临床工作流程中，临床医生表示更喜欢在电子健康记录中获取传感器数据。
临床医生和患者重视使用可穿戴传感器技术来改善对诊所外活动的测量，并表达了对如何将该技术最好地整合到常规康复护理中的偏好。
