Tracking the evolution of virtual reality applications to rehabilitation as a field of study.
Emily A Keshner, Patrice Tamar Weiss, Dorit Geifman and 1 others
PMID 31226995WHAT IT FOUND
Virtual reality rehabilitation is not one established field.
It is many disciplines using the same technology, with inconsistent terms and little sharing of results between physical and psychological work. Do not assume evidence transfers across conditions.
Key findings
01The final analysed corpus contained 1814 relevant publications, including 231 from 1996 to 2005, 807 from 2006 to 2014, and 776 from 2015 to mid-2018.
02The citation network showed separate clusters for physical and psychological rehabilitation topics, with few overlapping citations.
03The analysis suggested VR-based rehabilitation is a network of interlinked disciplines using common technology, not one cohesive field.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The search used one database, so it may have missed relevant publications outside that database. The study describes publication patterns but does not test why those patterns occur, so it cannot prove that VR rehabilitation works or does not work. Domain experts chose the topic labels, and the authors say this labeling is somewhat subjective, even though the papers were filtered automatically. The latest period covers only the first 6 months of 2018, so it is not a full year.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that virtual reality improves rehabilitation outcomes. The paper analysed publication patterns and terminology, not patient results, so it cannot tell you whether a VR treatment works.