Remote Assessments of Hand Function in Neurological Disorders: Systematic Review

JMIR Rehabil Assist Technol, 2022 · DOI: 10.2196/33157 · Published: March 9, 2022

Assistive Technology Neurology Rehabilitation

Simple Explanation

Loss of fine motor skills is common in neurological diseases. Remote monitoring assessments can help with early diagnosis and intervention. Remote assessments of hand function can track limitations, which helps in early diagnosis and intervention. This review looks at existing research on remote hand function assessment in people with long-term neurological issues.

Study Duration

3 days to 3 years

Participants

74 studies, ranging from 1 to 495 participants with neurological conditions

Evidence Level

Systematic Review

Key Findings

1
Remote assessment of hand function is feasible in neurological disorders.
2
Smartphone or tablet-based apps are the most readily implementable assessments.
3
The most common hand function domains assessed included finger tapping speed, hand tremor, and finger dexterity.

Research Summary

This review systematically gathers available literature on remote assessments for monitoring hand function in people with central, chronic, and neurological diseases. Many of the studies were of good quality, and several study characteristics were found to enhance their quality. The most readily implementable types of assessment were those using telerehabilitation or smartphone- or tablet-based apps.

Practical Implications

Clinical Practice

Remote assessments, particularly via telerehabilitation and smartphone apps, can improve the reliability of in-clinic assessments and facilitate clinic-to-home transitions.

Research

Future studies should focus on more homogeneous patient populations and standardized reporting of correlation coefficients to facilitate analysis across domains and assessment types.

Technology Development

Further development and validation of readily accessible technologies like smartphone apps for remote hand function assessment are needed.

Study Limitations

1
Heterogeneity of hand function domains evaluated.
2
Paucity of studies conducting repeated trials of the assessments.
3
Infrequent description of the effect of confounding variables in validity statistics.

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