Advancing Virtual Care in Stroke Rehabilitation through the TeleRehabilitation with Aims to Improve Lower extremity recovery post-stroke (TRAIL) program

A focus of stroke rehabilitation is on the recovery of lower-extremity limitations via exercise-based physical therapy, but many individuals report unmet rehabilitation needs due to barriers with accessing stroke care. The emergence of telerehabilitation presents an opportunity to expand the continuum of stroke recovery, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. However, our knowledge of the effectiveness of using telerehabilitation for the delivery of exercise interventions for lower extremity recovery is limited, thus highlighting the need for clinical research. This 60-minute symposium will bring interested stakeholders together to learn about and discuss: 1) Emerging telerehabilitation research to address the unmet lower extremity rehabilitation needs of individuals with stroke 2) Exploring qualitative learnings on the experiences of an exercise-based telerehabilitation program among individuals with stroke 3) Involving patient partners to help advance the delivery of telerehabilitation interventions to individuals facing barriers to accessing stroke rehabilitation services 4) Optimizing the provision of telerehabilitation using innovative technologies