The Rise of Telerehabilitation in Sports Medicine: A Postpandemic Paradigm Shift

The COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally transformed health care delivery, elevating telerehabilitation from a peripheral modality to a cornerstone of sports medicine practice. This review paper synthesizes evidence demonstrating comparable efficacy between telerehabilitation and traditional in-person care for musculoskeletal injuries and postsurgical recovery, particularly when enhanced by wearable technology and artificial intelligence (AI) analytics. While telerehabilitation improves access and adherence, especially for athletes in remote regions, significant challenges persist regarding digital equity, clinician training, and data privacy. The postpandemic era presents an opportunity to develop hybrid care models that combine technological innovation with personalized supervision, establishing telerehabilitation as a sustainable component of athletic care rather than merely a crisis-response measure. Furthermore, reports indicate positive changes in access, patient adherence, and care persistence, particularly among athletes in remote or underserved locations. Nevertheless, the swift trend toward the use of telerehabilitation also reveals vulnerabilities in the system, including digital access disparities, a lack of clinician training, regulatory ambiguity, and data privacy issues. Additionally, the lack of uniformity in study designs and results makes it challenging to generalize results across diverse athletic populations. Notwithstanding these factors, the postpandemic era presents a unique opportunity to establish postpandemic rehabilitation paradigms that incorporate hybrid models combining digital technology and person-directed care. This review paper also presents certain technological, clinical, ethical, and policy considerations that cannot be overlooked to achieve sustained, equitable, and evidence-based telerehabilitation practices. One final consideration regarding telerehabilitation or rethinking its role in sports medicine is the potential for it to become a core part of sports medicine rather than a short-term solution to emergency crises.