Rehabilitation Technology ​

Medical Technology and Rehabilitation Technology ​

The task of medical technology (Figure 1) is the creation of all those prophylactic, diagnostic and therapeutic devices and procedures that support the medical practitioner in his/her efforts for the well-being of the patient. These medical efforts may also be aimed at the rehabilitation of a patient, although the instruments used may very well belong to the fundus of medical technology.

• Medical technology aims at the healing of the patient.
• Medical technology, therefore, primarily addresses the impairment.

Rehabilitation technology (Figure 1), on the other hand, is primarily aimed at providing the person affected by a disability and/or a (social) handicap with technical tools with which the disability or handicap can be completely or at least partially overcome.

• Rehabilitation technology aims at restoring or improving a function of the patient affected by impairment.
• Rehabilitation technology starts therefore with the disability (ability disorder) or with the handicap.

Rehabilitation Technology (RT) is a multidisciplinary technical field whose task is to make technical and technological achievements usable for the improvement of the quality of life of disabled, chronically ill and old (frail) people. This multidisciplinarity does not exist merely by necessity (because of the lack of possibility of classification), but deliberately. When it comes to finding ways and means to help disabled, ill and old/frail people to achieve more independence and a higher quality of life, no technical discipline should be excluded. It should, therefore, be an honorable task for every technician to search his or her own field of specialization to see what contributions can be made to rehabilitation technology.

Goals of Rehabilitation Technology ​

1. Restoration / improvement of a function affected by damage.
   The approach is made to the ability disturbance. Use of the assistive device removes or ameliorates the disability (e.g., the use of a hearing aid by a hearing-impaired person). See Figure 2 (a).
2. Overcoming the effects of an impairment.
   The approach is with the handicap (social disadvantage). Despite persistence of the functional impairment, the social role (education, occupation, independent living, etc.) can again be perceived (e.g., watching a television program with subtitles for deaf people). See Figure 2 (b).
3. Removal of barriers
   Here the approach is to the general design of the environment. Rehabilitation technology shows ways to create barrier-free living spaces in which functional limitations (disabilities) do not necessarily become handicaps (e.g., creating step-free access to public facilities). See Figure 2 (c).

Attribution/Citation ​

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Attribution ​

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Citation ​

Use the following information to cite this book.

• Author: Dr. Wolfgang L. Zagler
• Title: Rehabilitationstechnik
• Date: March 1, 2008
• Location: Vienna, Austria
• Book URL:
• Chapter URL:

List of Abbreviations ​

RT

Rehabilitation Technology

List of Figures ​

• Figure 1: Medical technology and rehabilitation technology in relation to the chain of effects from disease to handicap [1].

• Figure 2: Overcoming the handicap [1].

List of Sources ​

• [1]: Rehabilitationstechnik (Wolfgang L. Zagler - CC-NC-SA 4.0)