Mini-review: Rehabilitation engineering: Research priorities and trends.

Abstract Rehabilitation Engineering is the use of engineering principles applied to rehabilitation, disability, and independent living. Google Scholar is a searchable resource that allows people from around the world to create profiles of their interests and collaborations, and it provides a means to search the broad scientific and technical literature. Google Scholar was used to identify the 150 most cited people who listed Rehabilitation Engineering in their profile. Research impact, characteristics, and areas of research of the most cited rehabilitation engineers were examined. Furthermore, gender and geographical differences in research metrics of the highest citied rehabilitation engineers were investigated. Consumer priorities in rehabilitation engineering were identified using a voice of consumer (VoC) survey and recent literature based on VoC studies. Gaps between research publication and activities and consumer priorities were identified to recommend seven areas of research with high demand and opportunity for growth and innovation. Implications. • Rehabilitation Engineering appears to be a male-dominated profession similar to other engineering disciplines. • There are disparities in the number of rehabilitation engineers and measures of scientific productivity between different regions of the world. • Despite people identifying as rehabilitation engineers in every region, the most cited were identified as working in the World Health Organization Region of Americas and the European Region. • There appears to be benefits for rehabilitation engineers who have multiple collaborations and who work in doctoral degree-granting institutions. • Seven areas of research identified as consumer priorities were not captured by the most cited rehabilitation engineers these include: 1) Transportation and automobile driving 2) Recreation/Leisure 3) Autonomous vehicles/wheelchairs 4) Smart home/IoT 5) Computer/mobile applications and telecommunications 6) Patient transfer devices 7) Power sources. These priorities are opportunities for growth and innovation.