Trends and Innovations in Wearable Technology for Motor Rehabilitation, Prediction, and Monitoring: A Comprehensive Review.

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Background

Continuous health promotion systems are increasingly important, enabling decentralized patient care, providing comfort, and reducing congestion in healthcare facilities. These systems allow for treatment beyond clinical settings and support preventive monitoring. Wearable systems have become essential tools for health monitoring, but they focus mainly on physiological data, overlooking motor data evaluation. The World Health Organization reports that 1.71 billion people globally suffer from musculoskeletal conditions, marked by pain and limited mobility. (2)

Methods

To gain a deeper understanding of wearables for the motor rehabilitation, monitoring, and prediction of the progression and/or degradation of symptoms directly associated with upper-limb pathologies, this study was conducted. Thus, all articles indexed in the Web of Science database containing the terms "wearable", "upper limb", and ("rehabilitation" or "monitor" or "predict") between 2019 and 2023 were flagged for analysis. (3)

Results

Out of 391 papers identified, 148 were included and analyzed, exploring pathologies, technologies, and their interrelationships. Technologies were categorized by typology and primary purpose. (4)

Conclusions

The study identified essential sensory units and actuators in wearable systems for upper-limb physiotherapy and analyzed them based on treatment methods and targeted pathologies.