Insights from Dr. Reynaldo Rey-Matias on the Role of Technology in Global Rehabilitation at ISPRM 2024

At the #ISPRM2024 congress in Sydney, Dr. Reynaldo Rey-Matias, Immediate Past President of the Asia-Oceanian Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine and Executive Committee member for South and Southeast Asia of the International Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, delivered a keynote lecture on “The Role of Technology in Rehab Globally.” In a follow-up interview with Dr. Cassandra Cooke, Dr. Rey-Matias discussed the importance of the World Health Organization’s GROWE program and its impact on rehabilitation workforces worldwide.

GROWE: Guiding Rehabilitation Workforce Evaluation

Dr. Rey-Matias introduced GROWE as a guide for rehabilitation work evaluation, designed to help countries, particularly those in the Western Pacific region, develop and project their rehabilitation workforce needs. “It’s a program to help countries develop the rehabilitation workforce and to project what will really be the needs of the rehabilitation workforce in the years to come,” he explained. This initiative is crucial for addressing the low density of rehabilitation professionals in lower and middle-income countries.

Impact on Global Rehabilitation

Dr. Rey-Matias highlighted the dual impact of GROWE on both developed and developing countries. For advanced countries, GROWE assists in projecting future rehabilitation needs and potentially offers training opportunities to other nations. In contrast, for emerging rehabilitation workforces, GROWE helps these countries project their workforce needs for the next five, ten, or twenty years. “It will try to help them project what will be the needed number of rehabilitation professionals in the next, let’s say, five, ten, or twenty years,” he noted.

Utilizing Technology for Needs Analysis

One of the key benefits of GROWE is its ability to utilize technology for conducting needs analyses. Dr. Rey-Matias described how countries can input data from their Ministries of Health or Labor to determine their rehabilitation needs accurately. “There’s a technology to check on the needs of the patient just by inputting the numbers,” he explained. This approach allows for a comprehensive understanding of both the educational needs and the availability of the rehabilitation workforce.

Challenges and Future Directions

Dr. Rey-Matias also addressed the challenge of workforce migration, where trained rehabilitation professionals move to other countries, leaving gaps in their home nations. GROWE aims to project and mitigate these issues by planning for future workforce needs effectively. “This will project in the future how many people, because of this rehabilitation workforce, will be helped,” he emphasized.

Dr. Rey-Matias’s insights at #ISPRM2024 underscore the crucial role of technology in advancing global rehabilitation efforts. The GROWE program represents a significant step forward in addressing the disparities in rehabilitation workforce distribution and ensuring that all countries can meet their rehabilitation needs.