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Physical and social activity can influence positively the effects of ageing. This study examined differences in balance, physical activity and social integration between everyday active, sportive or dancing 60- to 80-year-old people in Lower Austria.

Interprofessional collaborative learning is the interaction of health and/or social care professionals and/or students who are learning from service users’ clinical data. Digital solutions in primary care facilitate interactive communication. This systematic review aims to identify which digital solutions can facilitate the participation of health service users in collaborative learning for interprofessional service providers, and how service users can participate with the use of digital solutions.

European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in tertiary education at Universities of Applied Sciences recommend a high level of competence orientation. This can be achieved and evaluated by the definition of Learning Outcomes. Furthermore, these Outcomes can assure a comparison of the level of education after graduation. Efforts should be made to achieve this form of Quality Assurance for the professional education of physiotherapists.

The use of a common language in interprofessional collaboration is essential. The World Health Organization's International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) has been identified as a unifying framework for interprofessional collaboration and the identification of client needs. Higher education institutions (HEIs) offer ICF framework education to students but is it enough to enable graduated professionals to implement the ICF in clinical work? In our experience, the ICF education provided by HEIs does not meet the requirements of clinical practice, which might be due to gaps in teaching ICF to students (education) and specific requirements for teaching ICF to professionals already working in rehabilitation (training). This paper discusses the need for the ICF training in practice and ways to address it. Although many rehabilitation center professionals had previously received ICF education provided by the HEIs, the rehabilitation centers felt the need to develop their own practical training materials that could be applied to their own environment. Overall, 18 different ICF-based materials were developed during the Erasmus+ project called INPRO to promote person-centered and interprofessional practice in the rehabilitation centers. The practical training using real cases was considered valuable. It could be further developed in cooperation with HEIs and vice versa. It could also be used to teach students, i.e., future colleagues. To deepen and broaden the integration of the different materials based on the ICF, it is important to continue the interactive discussion between HEIs and clinical practice, and between management and its staff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Due to growing pressure on the health care system, a shift in rehabilitation to home settings is essential. However, efficient support for home-based rehabilitation is lacking. The COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated these challenges and has affected individuals and health care professionals during rehabilitation. Digital rehabilitation (DR) could support home-based rehabilitation. To develop and implement DR solutions that meet clients' needs and ease the growing pressure on the health care system, it is necessary to provide an overview of existing, relevant, and future solutions shaping the constantly evolving market of technologies for home-based DR., Objective: In this scoping review, we aimed to identify digital technologies for home-based DR, predict new or emerging DR trends, and report on the influences of the COVID-19 pandemic on DR., Methods: The scoping review followed the framework of Arksey and O'Malley, with improvements made by Levac et al. A literature search was performed in PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and the Cochrane Library. The search spanned January 2015 to January 2022. A bibliometric analysis was performed to provide an overview of the included references, and a co-occurrence analysis identified the technologies for home-based DR. A full-text analysis of all included reviews filtered the trends for home-based DR. A gray literature search supplemented the results of the review analysis and revealed the influences of the COVID-19 pandemic on the development of DR., Results: A total of 2437 records were included in the bibliometric analysis and 95 in the full-text analysis, and 40 records were included as a result of the gray literature search. Sensors, robotic devices, gamification, virtual and augmented reality, and digital and mobile apps are already used in home-based DR; however, artificial intelligence and machine learning, exoskeletons, and digital and mobile apps represent new and emerging trends. Advantages and disadvantages were displayed for all technologies. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increased use of digital technologies as remote approaches but has not led to the development of new technologies., Conclusions: Multiple tools are available and implemented for home-based DR; however, some technologies face limitations in the application of home-based rehabilitation. However, artificial intelligence and machine learning could be instrumental in redesigning rehabilitation and addressing future challenges of the health care system, and the rehabilitation sector in particular. The results show the need for feasible and effective approaches to implement DR that meet clients' needs and adhere to framework conditions, regardless of exceptional situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic., (©Angela Arntz, Franziska Weber, Marietta Handgraaf, Kaisa Lällä, Katariina Korniloff, Kari-Pekka Murtonen, Julija Chichaeva, Anita Kidritsch, Mario Heller, Evanthia Sakellari, Christina Athanasopoulou, Areti Lagiou, Ioanna Tzonichaki, Iosune Salinas-Bueno, Pau Martínez-Bueso, Olga Velasco-Roldán, Ralf-Joachim Schulz, Christian Grüneberg. Originally published in JMIR Rehabilitation and Assistive Technology (https://rehab.jmir.org), 27.07.2023.)