Ethical Principles in Telerehabilitation: A Narrative Review

Telerehabilitation is one of the new applications of technology in rehabilitation services. This method reduces the need to visit in person and saves the time and money of the clients. Knowing the ethical principles is very important in this type of rehabilitation. The aim of this study was to examine the essential ethical principles in Telerehabilitation.

We searched through Science Direct, PubMed, Cochrane Library, and SID databases. Keywords included Telerehabilitation, Telemedicine, Telehealth, eHealth, and Ethics.

The most essential ethical principles that should be considered in Telerehabilitation include privacy and security, professional commitment, and responsibility for compensation of possible losses from the therapist/treatment center.

Providing Telerehabilitation services should meet all the expectations of face-to-face rehabilitation. The lack of international standards of ethics in Telerehabilitation is one of the main obstacles to the widespread use of this method. To use this method effectively and correctly, the ethical principles in this field must be clearly defined, and Telerehabilitation systems must have specific characteristics under the ethical principles.