Technical support of every day clinical practice in neurorehabilitation increases with each day. Rehabilitation robots, virtual environments, telerehabilitation, eye-trackers, brain computer interfaces, neuroprostheses, exoskeletons becomes useful and effective tools for members of multidisciplinary therapeutic teams (especially physiotherapists). Where is the place of engineers within it? Will be there possibility (or even necessity) to incorporate them into therapeutic teams in the future?
Multispeciality hospitals employ a wide variety of engineers to guarantee the smooth day-to-day running of patient care, diagnostics and treatment - from building services engineers to electrical engineers, IT engineers, medical technology engineers, and so on.The biomedical engineer is to form an interdisciplinary link between the physician and his respective technical environment.
Yes, there are many innovations that are being tested for their value in neurorehabilitation. These include neuromodulation devices such as trans-cranial direct current stimulation and robotic exoskeletons for spinal cord injury. These are not necessarily everyday roles unless the engineer is on site with the rehabilitation unit. The deepening role of engineering in neurorehabilitation is also contingent on proving efficacy, and obtaining payor support for the innovations.
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