ArticleJMIR rehabilitation and assistive technologies2026
Design Recommendations for Virtual Reality-Based Upper Limb Exercises From People With Tetraplegia and Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation Specialists: Focus Group Study.
Article in JMIR rehabilitation and assistive technologies, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe global incidence of spinal cord injury (SCI) is between 10 and 80 new cases per million people each year. This equates to between 250,000 and 500,000 injuries worldwide per year. In the United Kingdom, approximately 4400 people per year sustain an SCI. People with tetraplegia report upper limb function as their highest priority for improvement after SCI. Using immersive virtual reality (VR) headsets, physical rehabilitation exercises can be completed in engaging digital environments. Immersive VR therefore has the potential to increase the amount of therapy undertaken, leading to improvements in arm and hand function. There is little evidence supporting immersive VR as exercise in SCI, especially while patients with SCI are undergoing acute rehabilitation. In SCI research, co-design of new interventions is not a widely adopted approach, yet people with tetraplegia want to contribute with their expert knowledge on their experiences of SCI.
objectiveThis study aims to explore the lived experiences of people with tetraplegia and specialist SCI therapists related to acute upper limb rehabilitation and identify design considerations for VR-based interventions targeting the upper limb.
methodsWe conducted 7 online focus groups using Microsoft Teams: 4 with people with tetraplegia (n=15; age range, 36-65 years) and 3 with occupational therapists and physiotherapists specializing in SCI rehabilitation (n=11). Participants were asked to discuss their experiences and expertise about acute SCI upper limb rehabilitation and their opinions and ideas on the use of VR for upper limb rehabilitation. The transcripts were analyzed using content analysis, enabling the proposition of design characteristics of a VR-based intervention for upper limb exercise.
resultsThe study identified 5 major themes describing the clinical features, treatment, and recovery of people with SCI during the acute stage of SCI, their motivations for participating in therapy, and suggestions for the design of a VR intervention in treating the upper limbs following SCI.
conclusionsThe themes identified in this study allow the elicitation of software requirements for a bespoke immersive VR platform for upper limb rehabilitation following SCI. They can also contribute to a better understanding of the advantages of using VR as an adjunct to upper limb rehabilitation. Additionally, participants used their expertise to suggest factors that would enable the development of a usable and effective intervention, as well as identifying potential pitfalls and software features to avoid during intervention development. These findings can be used to design accessible VR applications for use by people with tetraplegia and their therapists.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.