ArticleFrontiers in rehabilitation sciences2025
Estimates of the global workforce required for providing assistive technology: a modeling study.
Article in Frontiers in rehabilitation sciences, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- What is the cost of equity in assistive technology? A tool for calculating assistive products and services.Frontiers in rehabilitation sciences · 2026Article
- From professional appeal to professional standard: reframing the Italian rehabilitation workforce through evidence, regulation, and global alignment.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Global practices in AT provision: considerations for a national assistive technology policy for health in India.Frontiers in rehabilitation sciences · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Introduction: Despite being a fundamental human right, access to assistive products varies between 3% and 90% across countries. Ensuring adequate and trained human resources is a prerequisite for improving access to assistive products. To support workforce planning and development, this study estimated the global workforce required for assistive technology provision to achieve a high level of access. Method: This modeling study used estimates of the primary workforce for assistive technology provision and assistive product needs in a country with a high level of access and global assistive product needs, to predict the global workforce required to provide assistive technology in five product domains: cognition and communication, hearing, mobility and self-care, orthotics and prosthetics, and vision. The assistive product need estimates were based on self-reported data from WHO Rapid Assistive Technology Assessment surveys in 28 countries. Results: A total workforce for assistive technology provision of 4.4 (95% CI: 3.0-6.8) million full-time equivalents (FTE) would be required globally to achieve a high level of access to assistive products. Excluding the administrative workforce, this includes a workforce of 3.4 (2.3-5.4) million FTE, composed of 1.7 (1.3-2.2) million FTE providing mobility and self-care products, 0.9 (0.5-1.7) million FTE providing orthoses and prostheses, 0.5 (0.2-1.0) million FTE providing vision products, 0.3 (0.2-0.4) million FTE providing hearing products, and 0.05 (0.04-0.06) million FTE providing cognition and communication products. Conclusion: Likely a conservative estimate of the required workforce size, this provides a cautious foundation for informing strategies to develop a workforce capable of meeting global assistive product needs and improving access.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.