Mobile health: Is your next rehabilitation's specialist in your pocket?

The past few decades have witnessed an unprecedented surge in health-related mobile applications. However, most of these applications primarily focus on lifestyle domains such as sleep, fitness, and nutrition. A notable stride in this landscape involves the emergence of applications catering specifically to rehabilitation needs. This expert review aims to provide an encompassing overview of the wide spectrum of apps available for both assessment and rehabilitation. It delves into the existing constraints associated with these tools and deliberates on the potential avenues for future advancements and integration for future advancements and integration. The transformative potential of this mobile, affordable, and user-friendly technology in reshaping the field of rehabilitation sciences will be highlighted. This article underscores how harnessing these innovations can elevate accessibility and effectiveness in the rehabilitation processes, leading to improved overall outcomes and wellbeing.

Multidisciplinary Team Working in Rehabilitation Medicine: Advantages and challenges.

Healthcare is delivered in a very complicated environment where numerous variables affect the patient related outcomes. A multidisciplinary team that places a high priority on patient satisfaction and healthcare quality can help to simplify and manage the environment of complex healthcare delivery. The foundation of rehabilitation treatments is a multidisciplinary team approach to provide interventions and care for the patients. Regardless of the population studied, multidisciplinary rehabilitation has been shown to be more effective than therapy delivered by individual therapists in a number of different populations. Due to the patient's complex impairments, a team-based approach is necessary for assessments and facilitates coordinated care planning in the rehabilitation settings. The aim of this paper is to offer a narrative review of the advantages and challenges of multidisciplinary team working. The key components of teamwork in rehabilitation are the individualization of patient care and effective team communication.

Fat but Fit: How physical fitness can mitigate the cardiovascular risks of obesity?

Obesity has long been recognized as a major independent risk factor for cardiovascular diseases (CVD). However, intriguing paradoxes such as the "obesity paradox" and the "fat but fit" phenomenon have been associated with it. The "fat but fit" paradigm suggests that overweight or obese individuals might face a lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease if they possess high levels of physical fitness. In other words, higher fitness levels may mitigate the negative impact of obesity on cardiovascular risk, leading to a reduction in overall mortality due to CVD. The evidence surrounding this paradox is conflicting, highlighting the necessity for further research. The complex relationship between physical fitness, obesity, and cardiometabolic health is influenced by individual and environmental factors. Consequently, it becomes imperative to conduct more studies to comprehend this intricate interplay fully. To address this issue, it is important to focus on formulating strategies that promote the maintenance and enhancement of cardiorespiratory fitness in overweight and obese individuals. Moreover, including fitness evaluations in comprehensive risk stratification can significantly improve clinical decision-making.

A Brief Review of Inpatient Palliative Rehabilitation.

Cancer patients face many challenges that can have a significant impact on their quality of life (QOL). When patients experience multiple functional impairments due to disease or treatment, their QOL and the efficient use of healthcare resources can be compromised. This is particularly true for patients who are nearing the end of their lives, as the physical and emotional burden of cancer can have a profound effect on both the individual and their caregivers. One approach to improving QOL in these patients is through palliative rehabilitation. Despite being an underutilized and understudied resource, palliative rehabilitation has shown promise in helping patients with advanced cancer retain their dignity and sense of control. By maximizing functional independence and reducing symptom burdens, palliative rehabilitation can provide a vital source of support for patients and their caregivers during this challenging time. Inpatient rehabilitation is one way that palliative rehabilitation can be applied in a healthcare setting. While further research is needed to fully understand the benefits of this approach, it is clear that palliative rehabilitation has the potential to play a key role in helping patients and their caregivers navigate the challenges of cancer treatment and end-of-life care. This approach is specific to the USA context but can be applied in other settings where cancer patients require such care.

Task Oriented Training For Stroke Rehabilitation: A Mini Review.

Stroke is the leading global cause of death and disability and the need for stroke rehabilitation services in increasing. The usual stroke rehabilitation protocol involves a combination of therapeutic exercises, occupational therapy, speech therapy and counselling sessions depending upon the severity of the deficit and associated co-morbidities. However, there is a need for better protocols and new therapies for improving outcomes after stroke rehabilitation. The term 'task-oriented training' (TOT) refers to guided rehabilitation training of patients' limb function using goal oriented tasks, which can be used to enhance neuroplasticity in brain after injury. Task oriented training could be modified with action selection and environmental enrichment to fulfill the limitations of stroke like, holistic approach, outcome/goal based intervention, proper dosage for desirable outcomes. This mini review provides an overview of the TOT and to identify gaps and challenges in stroke rehabilitation related to integrating TOT.

Research Integrity, Governance, and Misconduct in Pakistan: Some Proposed Solutions.

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Bladder Drainage Options For People With Spinal Cord Injury: A Mini-Review.

Neurogenic bladder is one of the negative consequences following a spinal cord injury (SCI). SCI patients who have neurogenic bladder depend on alternative methods to drain urine from their bladder. These include indwelling catheters, reflex voiding , suprapubic tapping and intermittent catheterisation. This review summarizes evidence from the literature of five selected complications (renal failure, urinary tract infections, calculi, urethral stricture, and bladder cancer) that could result from use of the different bladder drainage methods. There is inconsistent evidence to support the superiority of intermittent over indwelling catheterisation on risk of renal impairment, urethral stricture, and renal calculi. Indwelling catheterisations are associated with higher risk of bladder calculi and cancer. Caution needs to be taken when interpreting this review, as many of its findings are from retrospective studies, and more than a decade old. Clinicians need to communicate the evidence to their patients when making the decision on method of bladder drainage.

Goal Setting In Medical Rehabilitation: A Narrative Review.

Goal setting is an integral part of rehabilitation and the rehabilitation process. The aim of rehabilitation is to optimize functioning. Therefore, rehabilitation professionals and patients together have to determine mutually which aspects of functioning they should aim at. From a clinical view, a formal procedure for setting goals should help to motivate patients, ensure cooperation of rehabilitation team members, help to identify relevant blind spots and provide a system to monitor patient changes. Applying goalsetting in rehabilitation represents a purpose in its own right, as it serves to strengthen the autonomy of patients and is a valuable tool to integrate personal motives, attitudes, meanings into the rehabilitation process. There is evidence that the introduction of goal setting into rehabilitation practice could enhance health-related quality of life and emotional states, especially self-efficacy. Mixed results have been reported regarding the patient motivation as well as activities and participation outcomes.

Use of Social Media and Digital Profile of Physicians: What One Needs to Know?

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An Overview Of The Management And Rehabilitation Of Dysphagia.

Dysphagia is a medical condition that makes it difficult for a person to eat or swallow. It is estimated that 590 million people worldwide have dysphagia. The causes are varied and include neurological disorders like stroke and motor neuron disease, head and neck cancer, neuromuscular diseases, inflammatory diseases such as dermatomyositis, dementia, cervical spinal cord injury, and anterior vertebral ossification. The assessment and screening of dysphagia consists of a questionnaire-based interview, mealtime observation, and, if deemed necessary by a screening test or instrumental examination by specialists. Treatment is based on the diagnosis, patients' cognition and information gathered by screening and clinical evaluation. Patient's function can be improved only when treatment is comprehensive and includes compensatory feeding using an adjusted swallowing diet, compensatory posture adjustment, and nutritional improvement. We present a brief overview of the assessment and management strategies for dysphagia.

Wellness in residency: Addressing the neglected need in lower middle-income countries.

The concept of wellness incorporates many domains, including mental, physical, social, and integrated well-being. However, it is not well understood in most lower middle-income countries (LMIC). The significance of practicing wellness during residency, focusing on the context of LMIC, is described here. Based on the authors' experiences of working in LMIC, the challenges faced during residency and the importance of prioritizing self-care and well-being is highlighted. Physician burnout is a global concern having a negative impact on patient care quality, patient satisfaction, and professionalism. Interventions to address wellness can be individual and organization-based. Individual interventions include mindfulness training, behavioral interventions, self-care practices, and support networks. Organizational interventions involve the establishment of wellness committees, introduction of wellness curricula, optimization of workflows, and creation of shared social spaces. There is a need for implementing wellness practices within residency programs in LMIC. By focusing on wellness, physicians can mitigate burnout, enhance their well-being, and improve patient care outcomes.

Are antiepileptic drugs effective for the primary and secondary prevention of Seizures after stroke? A Cochrane Review summary with commentary.

BACKGROUND: In post stroke patients, seizures can complicate the recovery process and lead to poor outcomes. It is unclear whether antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) can prevent seizures after a stroke. OBJECTIVE: To summarize the evidence on the effects of AEDs on the primary and secondary prevention of post stroke seizures. METHODS: The authors searched the Cochrane Register of Studies and MEDLINE (last search on 9 March 2021), checked the reference lists of articles retrieved and contacted the corresponding authors of the study where needed. Only randomized controlled trials were included (RCT). There were no language and time limits. RESULTS: Two RCTs with 856 adult participants with a clinical diagnosis of stroke were included. There was moderate-certainty evidence that the AEDs were not effective for primary prevention of post stroke seizures (Relative effect, 95% CI = RR 0.65, 95% CI 0.34 to 1.26). They also did not affect the mortality rate (RR 1.03, 95% CI 0.78 to 1.36). Both studies were at low risk of bias and certainty of the evidence was low to moderate. CONCLUSION: The evidence for routine use of AED for the primary and secondary prophylaxis of post stroke seizures is unclear. There is a need for high-quality trials to address this question using a larger sample size.

Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulator as a Protective Treatment against Intensive Care Unit Muscle Wasting in Sepsis/Septic Shock Patients.

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Role of Vitalstim® In The Management Of Patients With Dysphagia: A MiniReview.

Dysphagia defined as difficulty in swallowing, can result from multiple causes including, Stroke, head injury, Alzheimer, Dementia, Muscular dystrophy, Cerebral Palsy etc. It is associated with neuro-muscular impairments in different age groups. VitalStim® therapy is a relatively new approach to treat dysphagia. It provides neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) of the involved muscles to improve the function of swallowing. This review summarizes the usefulness of VitalStim® in dysphagia, and barriers in its use in Pakistan.