THE INDEX

Every paper we have read

Each one summarised from the full article, not its abstract, and kept only if it speaks to physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech-language pathology or nursing. Newest first.

35,183 PAPERS · PAGE 621 OF 704 · NEWEST FIRST

• OTOther2026A Shortened Upper Extremity Functional Capacity Evaluation for Patients with Complaints of Hand, Wrist, Forearm, and Elbow: Composition and Assessment of Construct Validity and Test-Retest Reliability.Journal of occupational rehabilitationShortening hand and finger strength tests to one try and dexterity tests to two tries gave scores similar to the full evaluation. Some dexterity scores did not match patients' reported hand function, and dominant-hand pegboard scores were unstable between visits.
• PTOTCohort2026Association of Sleep Quality With Activity and Participation in Older Adults.Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitationOlder adults with poor sleep quality reported lower physical function, greater disability, and less walking confidence than those with good sleep. They also walked slower and had lower performance scores. No association was found with figure-of-8 walking skill.
• PTOTSLPCohort2025Reductions in Therapy Provision in Skilled Nursing Facilities After Medicare Payment Reform and During the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Interrupted Time Series Analysis.Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitationMedicare's 2019 payment reform cut therapy minutes in skilled nursing facilities by roughly a quarter. Physical and occupational therapy dropped the most. Rural and for-profit facilities saw the sharpest declines, and therapy levels had not recovered by late 2021.
• PTOTRCT2025Effects of kilohertz versus low-frequency electrical stimulation of the wrist extensors in patients after stroke: A randomized crossover trial.PM & R : the journal of injury, function, and rehabilitationLow-frequency electrical stimulation was more efficient at producing force per milliamp than kilohertz stimulation in stroke patients, but both types resulted in similar force, discomfort, and fatigue.
• Survey2025Burnout in Canadian Physiatrists: A National Cross-sectional Survey.American journal of physical medicine & rehabilitation42% of Canadian physiatrists met burnout criteria, 43% reported moderate-severe moral injury, and 40% showed emotion regulation difficulties indicative of depression. Female sex and White race were linked to higher burnout risk, while witnessing compassion between colleagues was protective.
• PTOTCohort2025Opioid consumption after lower limb amputation in Medicare beneficiaries.PM & R : the journal of injury, function, and rehabilitationAfter lower limb amputation, 23.2% of patients who were not chronic opioid users kept filling opioid prescriptions in later months, and 91.2% of chronic users had prolonged use. High-risk prescribing remained common, especially among chronic users.
• PTRCT2025Effectiveness of a multimodal physiotherapy program in fighter pilots with flight-related neck pain: A randomized controlled trial.PM & R : the journal of injury, function, and rehabilitationAmong 31 fighter pilots with flight-related neck pain, those who did laser-guided neck exercises plus electrical stimulation with massage reported less pain and better neck position sense than pilots who kept their routine. The program lasted four weeks.
• PTOTQualitative2025Community-Based Exercise Programming for Individuals with Parkinson's Disease: A Qualitative Study.NeuroRehabilitationParticipants valued PD-specific groups where instructors knew the disease and peers shared similar symptoms. They reported better mood and confidence, not just mobility. Transportation and cost were the main barriers, while feeling understood by others with PD was key to sticking with the program.
• PTRCT2025Is training speed an accurate predictor of who attains a minimal clinically important difference in the six-minute walk test in people with chronic stroke?Topics in stroke rehabilitationAverage treadmill speed did not predict which people with chronic stroke achieved a clinically meaningful improvement in the six-minute walk test. Clinicians cannot rely on training speed alone to determine who will respond to high-intensity walking interventions.
• PTOTOther2025Systematic development of an implementation strategy to promote high-intensity rehabilitation uptake in skilled nursing facilities.PM & R : the journal of injury, function, and rehabilitationThis paper describes the development of an 18-week training package to help therapists in skilled nursing facilities adopt high-intensity rehab. It reports no patient outcomes or effectiveness data, so it offers a blueprint for implementation rather than evidence that the strategy works.
• PTOTMeta-Analysis2025Time Post-Stroke and Upper Extremity Stroke Motor Recovery Rehabilitation: A Meta-Analysis.Neurorehabilitation and neural repairUpper extremity rehabilitation interventions improved motor function scores in both early and late stroke phases, but gains were larger in the acute/subacute phase. High-frequency brain stimulation and constraint-induced therapy showed the biggest early benefits. Chronic-phase trials may underestimate treatment effects.
• PTOTCohort2025Prediction of Motor Recovery after Subacute Cerebral Infarction: Role of Corticocerebellar Pathway Integrity.Neurorehabilitation and neural repairIn subacute right MCA stroke, DTI asymmetry of the superior cerebellar peduncle predicted 30-day upper limb motor scores. The inferior cerebellar peduncle predicted lower limb scores. The middle cerebellar peduncle showed no relationship with motor function.
• Other2025Inclusive Mobility: Dismantling transportation injustice at the intersection of race and disability.Disability and health journalThis viewpoint article discusses how historical racism and ableism have created systemic barriers to public transportation for Black Americans and people with disabilities. It proposes a conceptual framework for future research and policy change but reports no clinical findings or tested interventions.
• PTCohort2025Racial disparities in patients with amputation in an acute care setting in the immediate postoperative period.PM & R : the journal of injury, function, and rehabilitationRace or ethnicity was not linked to discharge to inpatient rehabilitation after amputation. Black, Hispanic, and Asian patients had longer acute hospital stays than White patients. Age and a PM&R consult were tied to rehabilitation discharge.
• PTOTSLPSystematic Review2025Telerehabilitation as an innovative strategy for the management of anxiety and dyspnea in post-COVID-19: A scoping review.PM & R : the journal of injury, function, and rehabilitationTelerehabilitation for post-COVID patients generally improved breathing, physical function, and quality of life across 19 studies. Anxiety results were mixed, with some reviews showing no significant reduction. Evidence remains limited by small sample sizes and a lack of standardized guidelines.
• PTOTSLPQualitative2025Codesign of a framework to support compassionate care appropriate to technology use by people with cognitive decline.Disability and rehabilitationPeople with cognitive decline want home monitoring technology that respects their privacy and autonomy. They fear being judged for low activity or insurance penalties. Clinicians should discuss these specific risks and tailor technology selection to individual values.
• PTOTSLPOther2025Applying NLP methods to code functional performance in electronic health records using the international classification of functioning, disability, and health.Disability and health journalThe ICF framework helped standardize how therapists document mobility, self-care, relationships, and communication in electronic records. But codes often overlapped, lacked cultural inclusivity, and failed to capture modern technology use, requiring manual consensus to make them usable for automated data extraction.
• PTOTSLPOther2025Effects of Internal and External Cues on Brain Activity and Gait in Parkinson's Disease: Findings From BARC-PD.Neurorehabilitation and neural repairInternal and visual cues improved gait speed and stride length more than auditory or tactile cues. Disease stage did not change who benefited, contradicting guidelines that reserve internal cues for early Parkinson's. The brain's response varied by cue type, suggesting different mechanisms for each strategy.
• PTOTSLPCohort2025Course of Fatigue and Sleep After Moderate to Severe Traumatic Brain Injury.The Journal of head trauma rehabilitationFatigue and poor sleep remained high and stable for 18 months after moderate to severe brain injury. Physical tiredness and objectively measured sleep time decreased slightly. Mood problems consistently linked to worse fatigue and sleep quality, while processing speed did not.
• SLPRCT2026Measurement of cross-language and cross-domain generalization following semantic feature-based anomia treatment in bilingual aphasia.Neuropsychological rehabilitationTreating naming deficits in one language of bilingual patients with chronic aphasia improved word retrieval in both languages. Gains extended to untrained words and overall language ability, but did not improve nonverbal reasoning or semantic control tasks.
• Other2026Work Ability and Work Participation Statuses of the Working-Age Population in Finland: A Register-Based Clustering Study.Journal of occupational rehabilitationA national register study grouped working-age Finns into 11 clusters based on combined factors like age, education, health, and family status. These clusters varied substantially in annual employment, unemployment, and disability months, demonstrating that work ability is multidimensional and cannot be assessed by single factors alone.
• PTOTQualitative2026What Works (or Doesn't) in Return to Work after Physical Injury? A Qualitative Study on the Perspectives of Trauma Patients and Health Care Professionals on Barriers and Facilitators in Return to Work.Journal of occupational rehabilitationTrauma patients described hospital care as ignoring work entirely, leaving them to figure out reintegration alone. They valued therapists who actively protected them from overstretching and helped adjust schedules rather than just treating physical function.
• SLPOther2026Directional vibro-tactile hazard warnings for drivers with vision impairments.Assistive technology : the official journal of RESNAIn a driving simulator, seat vibrations warning of pedestrian hazards reduced collisions to zero for drivers with central vision loss and to under 1% for those with field loss. The warnings helped those with vision loss, not normal-vision drivers.
• PTOTCohort2026Prevalence and Characteristics of Prehabilitation Utilization Among Older Medicare Beneficiaries Undergoing Elective Inpatient Lower Extremity Joint Replacement.Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitationOnly 9.53% of older Medicare patients undergoing elective hip or knee replacement received prehabilitation. Most received a single outpatient physical therapy visit. Pre-frail patients and those with more chronic conditions were less likely to receive these services.
• PTOTRCT2026Cross-lagged assessment between indices of leisure time physical activity and domains of quality of life after electrical stimulation training in persons with spinal cord injury: An exploratory trial.PM & R : the journal of injury, function, and rehabilitationAfter 24 weeks of electrical stimulation exercise, leisure-time physical activity predicted improvements in psychological and social quality of life, but not physical or environmental quality of life. The study was too small to confirm these patterns or prove the exercise caused the changes.
• PTOTCohort2026Impact of COVID-19 positive status on outcome for individuals with stroke treated in acute inpatient rehabilitation.PM & R : the journal of injury, function, and rehabilitationIn stroke rehabilitation, COVID-positive patients stayed longer, had lower mobility at admission and discharge, and were less likely to go home while receiving more therapy. Self-care gains, falls, and satisfaction were similar.
• PTOTSLPOther2026Patient engagement in inpatient rehabilitation: A scoping review of measures and evolving conceptualizations.Rehabilitation psychologyClinicians mostly rate engagement by watching patients, which misses why someone holds back. Patients rarely rate themselves, and no measure captures the interaction between patient and therapist. This gap makes it hard to target interventions for low engagement.
• Survey2026Assessing knowledge about the Americans with Disabilities Act and comfort level in treating persons with disabilities among fourth-year medical students following a clerkship in physical medicine and rehabilitation.PM & R : the journal of injury, function, and rehabilitationMedical students self-reported better knowledge of ADA responsibilities and more comfort caring for patients with disabilities after a 2-week PM&R clerkship.
• PTOTSLPCohort2026Self-management in youth with spina bifida: predictors of health and quality of life outcomes.Disability and rehabilitationHigher self-management in young adults with spina bifida lowered the odds of diabetes, obesity, and osteoporosis, and improved quality of life. However, self-management did not reduce recent urinary tract infections or pressure injuries. Mental health declined with age, with females reporting worse outcomes.
• RCT2026Association between concussion-reporting intention and reporting behavior in a simulated game setting.PM & R : the journal of injury, function, and rehabilitationAthletes who intended to report a concussion were more likely to report one in a first-person football simulation. The link was clear in the educated group and not clear in the non-educated group.
• Survey2026Needs assessment of training midwifery, nursing, and medical students in sexual and reproductive health care for people with disabilities in Tanzania.Disability and health journalNearly all Tanzanian medical and nursing students reported high interest in training for sexual health care of people with disabilities, citing current gaps in their education. Most preferred in-person workshops over online formats due to local connectivity issues.
• PTOTSystematic Review2026Mapping Vocational Rehabilitation Interventions for People with Chronic Low Back Pain: A Scoping Review.Journal of occupational rehabilitationEuropean vocational rehabilitation programmes for chronic low back pain varied widely in duration, intensity and components. Physiotherapists and medical specialists were common, but team collaboration and return-to-work measures were often unclear. Treat programme labels as descriptive, not proof of effect.
• PTOTSLPSystematic Review2026A socioecological approach to understanding and positively affecting the intersectionality between disability, race and ethnicity, climate change, and rehabilitation outcomes: A scoping review.PM & R : the journal of injury, function, and rehabilitationClimate events disrupt rehab care for people with disabilities, especially those with mobility, temperature regulation, or ventilator needs. The review found no tested interventions, only expert recommendations for disaster planning, telerehabilitation, and policy advocacy to protect continuity of care.
• Cohort2026Identification of factors related to pain from musculoskeletal injections.PM & R : the journal of injury, function, and rehabilitationBuffering lidocaine with sodium bicarbonate lowered injection pain by 0.68 points on a 10-point scale. Female patients, ultrasound guidance, and trainee presence were linked to higher pain scores. Older age and larger injectate volumes showed trivial associations with lower pain.
• PTCohort2025Self-reported health outcomes and medical complications at 6- and 8-year follow-up after direct skeletal fixation in individuals with bilateral transfemoral amputations.International journal of rehabilitation research. Internationale Zeitschrift fur Rehabilitationsforschung. Revue internationale de recherches de readaptationPhysical health scores rose from median 29 before surgery to 47 at 6 years and 45 at 8 years in eight military veterans with bilateral transfemoral amputation after direct skeletal fixation and rehabilitation. Mental health improved at 6 years but not at 8.
• PTOTRCT2025Boot Camp: A Randomized Cross-Over Trial of Intensive Upper-Limb Rehabilitation After Chronic Stroke.Neurorehabilitation and neural repairIntensive group therapy improved arm movement and daily function more than usual care. However, only 74% of participants managed the full 90 hours. Clinicians should expect high dropout risk when prescribing this intensity to chronic stroke survivors.
• PTCohort2025Resting-state Alpha Reactivity Is Reduced in Parkinson's Disease and Associated With Gait Variability.Neurorehabilitation and neural repairPeople with Parkinson's showed reduced EEG alpha reactivity, linked to greater gait variability. However, this brain measure was not specific to Parkinson's; the difference disappeared when accounting for global cognitive scores.
• PTOTCase-Control2025Diffusion Tensor Imaging Findings in Cerebral Sensorimotor Areas in Patients After Spinal Cord Injury Correlate With Neurophysiological Deficits.Neurorehabilitation and neural repairPatients with chronic spinal cord injury showed lower fractional anisotropy in sensorimotor brain areas compared to healthy controls. In patients with tetraplegia, these brain changes correlated with worse leg movement and lower muscle response to magnetic stimulation.
• SLPQualitative2025"I'd rather be in pain than be patronized." A qualitative study of health care experiences of persons with disabilities.PM & R : the journal of injury, function, and rehabilitationPeople with disabilities described care that ignored accommodations, dismissed their knowledge, or assumed incompetence. They wanted physicians to prepare, collaborate, and treat them as people first.
• PTOTSLPCohort2025Traumatic Brain Injury in Those With Preexisting Disability: Prevalence, Characteristics, and Psychosocial Function.The Journal of head trauma rehabilitationAdults with pre-existing disability who sustained a TBI with loss of consciousness reported significantly more days of poor mental and physical health and higher loneliness compared to those without such TBI. Employment rates did not differ between the groups.
• PTOTRCT2025Modulating Brain Excitability with Cardiovascular Exercise in Chronic Stroke: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Neurorehabilitation and neural repairTwelve weeks of cycling improved brain excitability in the injured hemisphere for both high-intensity and moderate-intensity groups. Neither intensity was superior. Upper limb function did not change, so these brain measures are not yet proof of physical recovery.
• OTOther2025Research Letter: Interview Versus Self-Administration of Retrospective Brain Injury Identification.The Journal of head trauma rehabilitationSelf-administered online screening for past brain injury matched telephone interview results for most people. Clinicians can use the online form to save staff time, but should be aware it may miss some other acquired brain injuries.
• PTRCT2025Maintenance of Improvements in Walking Activity in Individuals with Chronic Stroke: Follow-Up From the PROWALKS Randomized Controlled Trial.Neurorehabilitation and neural repairNo group maintained walking gains better than another after the 12-week program. Daily steps fell in all groups from post-intervention to 6 and 12 months.
• PTOTOther2025Loss of Joint Individuation and Abnormal Synergy Post Stroke in Upper Limb Movements.Neurorehabilitation and neural repairStroke survivors showed severe loss of joint individuation, particularly in the wrist. When trying to move the wrist, the shoulder and elbow involuntarily coupled. Higher spasticity correlated with worse coupling. This quantifies the 'abnormal synergy' seen in clinical exams.
• PTOTSLPQualitative2026Facilitating Return to Work through a Broader Perspective on Vocational Rehabilitation: Insights from Patients with Stress-Related Disorders.Journal of occupational rehabilitationPatients with stress-related exhaustion said successful return to work required workplace and organisational changes, not just individual coping. They needed managers with authority to adjust tasks, clear structures, and influence over their own pace and environment.
• PTOTCohort2026Cluster Analysis Reveals Subgroups with Different Risk Profiles and Sickness Absence Patterns in an Occupational Health Cohort.Journal of occupational rehabilitationEmployees who felt their work was appreciated and had good workplace atmosphere had the lowest sickness absence. Those reporting worsening work ability and musculoskeletal pain had the highest risk of long-term absence, while cardiovascular risk factors predicted absence even when symptoms did not hinder work.
• OTCohort2026Return to Work or Not: The Paths to Psychiatric Disability and Back.Journal of occupational rehabilitationAmong 18,373 people granted a first disability pension for mental disorder, 98% of permanent pensioners remained on pension, while temporary pensioners moved to work, unemployment, study, or remained on pension.
• PTOTSLPSurvey2026Disability, Job Satisfaction, and Workplace Accommodations: Evidence from the Healthcare Industry.Journal of occupational rehabilitationHealthcare workers with disabilities report worse workplace experiences, including higher turnover intentions and lower support, than those without. Accommodation requests are common for both groups, but denial or partial granting harms job satisfaction and commitment regardless of disability status.
• PTOTCohort2026Focal extracorporeal shockwave therapy in shoulder calcific tendinopathy: A retrospective observational study of sonographic prognostic factors.PM & R : the journal of injury, function, and rehabilitationPatients with shoulder calcific tendinopathy and subacromial bursitis had significantly worse pain and function after shockwave therapy than those without bursitis. All patients without bursitis met the threshold for meaningful improvement, compared to only 5 of 7 with bursitis.
• PTOTSLPRCT2026Quantifying Exercise Intensity to Predict Changes in Walking Capacity in Individuals with Chronic Stroke.Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitationTraining speed predicted walking gains in chronic stroke, but heart rate did not. Walking at a patient's fastest speed yielded larger improvements than their normal pace. Clinicians should target speed, not just heart rate, to maximize endurance and velocity.