Specialty grand challenge: Rehabilitation engineering

Abstract

IntroductionRehabilitation engineering is the use of engineering sciences and principles to provide technological solutions to improve the quality of life for people experiencing disabilities. Although rehabilitation engineering is a relatively new field of study compared with traditional engineering disciplines, earliest forms of practice date back thousands of years (1, 2). Thus, early records reveal use of rudimentary aids: walking sticks to aid ambulation, corrective lens for improved vision, and audiphones to aid hearing. The modern era of rehabilitation engineering began in the 1970s, largely benefiting from United States government advocacy and support. In particular, the establishment of Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers (RERC) through the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR), part of Administration for Community Living (formerly through National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, the United States Department of Education) has noticeably promoted development and research in rehabilitation engineering. The first rehabilitation engineering society, the Rehabilitation Engineering Society of North America (RESANA), was launched in 1979. This was followed by other national or regional professional associations in rehabilitation engineering around the world. According to World Health Organization (WHO), 1 in 6 people worldwide currently experience a significant disability, 1 in 3 people are living with a health condition that can benefit from rehabilitation, and the numbers are expected to increase with ageing populations and more people living with chronic disease (3, 4). As rehabilitation has become a priority health strategy for the 21st century, development of rehabilitation engineering plays a crucial role to fulfill the profound unmet need for rehabilitation worldwide. The development status of rehabilitation engineering varies across different countries, and people in low income countries have not benefited from technical advances as much as those in higher income countries. A Global Cooperation on Assistive Technology (GATE) initiative was established by WHO in 2014 to improve access to high-quality affordable assistive products globally (5). Although the past half century has witnessed a tremendous progress in rehabilitation engineering, contributing to a more supportive environment for people experiencing disabilities, there is still much to be done to meet the world’s increasing needs in both advancement and use of rehabilitation and assistive technologies. In the following we outline several grand challenges for the modern burgeoning field of rehabilitation engineering.Grand challenge in integrating emerging technology advances in rehabilitation engineeringLife changing breakthroughs have been made in rehabilitation engineering, resulting in a great variety of devices, tools, and systems that meet a wide range of needs for individuals experiencing functional deficits in mobility, communication, hearing, vision, or cognition (6). The achievement of rehabilitation engineering at present would not have been possible without advances in many different areas such as portable and powerful computational resources, computer-aided design and manufacture, wearable or implantable sensors, mobile and wireless technology, rapid prototyping and 3D printing, exoskeleton and robotics, neuromuscular and brain stimulation, virtual reality, brain computer interfaces, etc. (see review articles 7-15, among others). The multidisciplinary nature of rehabilitation engineering is evident that the field is inherently collaborative. Breakthrough in one field can significantly influence or even revolutionize rehabilitation engineering technologies. Integration of knowledge and advances generated by various fields of study is critical for the further development of rehabilitation engineering. There are exciting emerging technologies such as artificial intellig