Possibilities of Rehabilitation and Telerehabilitation of Patients with Moderate and Severe Course of COVID-19 Disease Using Virtual Reality

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we present the possibilities of using virtual reality in the rehabilitation of patients after overcoming COVID-19 disease with a moderate or severe course. We have created a virtual environment with various interactive tasks that help patients in the rehabilitation of especially the musculoskeletal system and cognitive abilities. Patients were divided into groups according to the severity of the course of the disease and the possibility of rehabilitation with a therapist in an outpatient clinic or the possibility of tele-rehabilitation in the home environment was used. Based on the results, we showed that virtual reality was a suitable tool for these types of rehabilitation and provided opportunities for comparing the classical approach and modern methods. Virtual reality had a greater impact on patients' motivation to rehabilitate, especially in cases where patients were using virtual reality for the first time. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.