Table 1.

Characteristics of studies on telerehabilitation reviewed.

First author, date, reference	Type of article	Rehabilitation area	Sample size	Article key points	Positive aspects	Barriers and limitations
Ackerman, 2010 [1]	Original research	Multiple rehabilitation areas	Literature review	Next-generation telehealth tools	Devices are available at home; electronic health record available for each person; interaction of multiple systems.	People and technological systems are not ready (data flow and incompatibility between telerehabilitation systems).
Rogante, 2010 [2]	Review article	Multiple rehabilitation areas	Literature review	Overview of telerehabilitation literature	Provides some techniques at a distance.	Health care providers are not ready; comprehensive studies are lacking.
Zampolini, 2008 [3]	Review article	Multiple rehabilitation areas	Literature review	Overview of telerehabilitation literature and a study	The possibilities of using telerehabilitation as standard in the future.	Technologies, patients, and health care providers are not ready.
Carey, 2007 [4]	Original research	Physiotherapy	Literature review	Cortical reorganization after stroke	Telerehabilitation may be effective in improving performance in patients with chronic stroke.	No clear advantage produced over the same amount of practice of random movements.
Parmanto, 2008 [5]	Review article	Multiple rehabilitation areas	Literature review	Telerehabilitation from informatics perspective	Information technology and telerehabilitation are the future.	Health care providers are not ready to manage an everyday telerehabilitation approach.
Mani, 2016 [6]	Review article	Physiotherapy	Literature review	Telerehabilitation in musculoskeletal disorders	Telerehabilitation-based physiotherapy assessment is technically feasible.	Telerehabilitation-based physiotherapy assessment was not feasible or reliable for lumbar spine posture, orthopedic special tests, neurodynamic tests, and scar assessment.
Gal, 2015 [7]	Original research	Physiotherapy	Literature review	Kinect-based system in physiotherapy	Kinect can greatly help people in rehabilitation.	Not present.
Jagos, 2015 [8]	Clinical trial	Cardiac rehabilitation	5 patients	Rehabilitation after stroke	The system used could be used for further analysis.	Not present.
Keshner, 2007 [9]	Original research	Multiple rehabilitation areas	Literature review	VRaas a treatment intervention	VR should be used more in the future.	People are not ready.
Larson, 2014 [10]	Review article	Multiple rehabilitation areas	Literature review	VR treatment	VR is effectively used for telerehabilitation.	Further studies are needed to optimize the techniques.
Kenyon, 2004 [11]	Review article	Multiple rehabilitation areas	Literature review	VR treatment	The virtual environment can be a valuable tool for therapeutic interventions that require adaptation to complex, multimodal environments.	Not present.
Lewis, 1997 [12]	Review article	Multiple rehabilitation areas	Literature review	VR treatment and human factors	VR has many potentialities in health care.	Some users experienced adverse effects during and after exposure to VR environments (ocular problems, disorientation and balance disturbances, and nausea).
Burdea, 2013 [13]	Case study	Physiotherapy and neurological rehabilitation	Literature review	Cerebral palsy motor control improvement	Game-based robotic training of the ankle benefits gait in children with cerebral palsy.	Additional studies are needed to quantify the level of benefit and for comparing different approaches.
Busch, 2009 [14]	Clinical trial	Cardiac rehabilitation	4 patients	Electrocardiography, blood pressure, and oxygen saturation in cardiac patients	The system shown is acceptable.	Electrocardiogram connection (27%) and blood pressure reading problems (23%); more reliability is needed.
Dinesen, 2012 [15]	Case study	Multiple rehabilitation areas	60 patients	Telehealth in pulmonary disease patients	Not present.	Future work requires large-scale studies of prolonged home monitoring with more extended follow-up.
Giansanti, 2013 [18]	Original research	Multiple rehabilitation areas	Literature review	Validation of a portable care system	Very low costs compared with optoelectronic solutions and other portable solutions; very high accuracy, also for patients with imbalance problems; good compatibility with any rehabilitative tool.	Not present.
Kairy, 2016 [19]	Clinical trial	Physiotherapy	104 patients	Upper limb through VR	This approach can enhance continuity of care once patients are discharged from rehabilitation.	Not present.
Myers, 2003 [20]	Original research	Cardiac rehabilitation	Literature review	Cardiology overview	Not present.	Not present.
Piotrowicz, 2012 [21]	Clinical trial	Cardiac rehabilitation	75 patients	Home-based cardiac rehabilitation in heart failure patients	The system used is reliable.	Further studies are required.
Fletcher, 2001 [22]	Original research	Cardiac rehabilitation	Literature review	Exercise standards for testing and training	Not present.	Not present.
Piotrowicz, 2010 [23]	Clinical trial	Cardiac rehabilitation	152 patients	Home-based telemonitoring system	The system is effective and usable.	Not present.
Rose, 2005 [24]	Review article	Neurological rehabilitation	Literature review	VR in brain damage	VR has the potential to assist current rehabilitation techniques and will be an integral part of cognitive assessment and rehabilitation in the future.	Brain damage rehabilitation is still a relatively undeveloped field.
Satava, 1995 [25]	Original research	Multiple rehabilitation areas	Literature review	VR	Not present.	Not present.
Rizzo, 2005 [26]	Original research	Neurological rehabilitation	Literature review	VR, brain, and therapy	VR has many potentialities in medicine.	VR rehabilitation is still in an early phase of development characterized by successful proof of concept.
Linder, 2015 [27]	Clinical Trial	Neurological rehabilitation	99 patients	Improving quality of life and depression after stroke	A robot-assisted intervention may be a valuable approach for improving quality of life.	Not present.
Holst, 2017 [28]	Original research	Neurological rehabilitation	Literature review	Depression treatment	Internet-mediated cognitive behavioral therapy is an attractive alternative for some, but not all, patients with depression in primary care.	Lack of face-to-face meeting and human contact.
Vaughan, 2016 [29]	Review article	Neurological rehabilitation	Literature review	State-of-the-art of VR	VR could be used to treat neurological patients.	Not present.

^aVR: virtual reality.