Abstract
Digital technology has been used in rehabilitation for decades, from early electronic games and computer-based cognitive training to contemporary virtual and augmented reality, exergaming, robotics, wearables, telerehabilitation, and artificial-intelligence-enabled systems. The field has therefore moved well beyond the question of whether technology can be used in rehabilitation. Existing frameworks address important parts of the problem, including treatment specification, technology classification and selection, therapeutic gaming and virtual-reality decision making, technology-specific clinical utilization, design, adoption, implementation, and co-development. Rather than claiming that these elements are new, this paper asks whether they can be integrated into a technology-agnostic point-of-care reasoning architecture. The Technology-Enhanced Rehabilitation (TER) Framework begins with therapeutic intent: a meaningful goal, an explicit therapeutic target, and a plausible therapeutic strategy. Technology then passes through a therapeutic value checkpoint and may be rejected when a reasonable non-technological alternative is preferable. When technology is justified, clinicians identify the required technological capability, assess fit across person, clinician, technology, and context, and deliberately configure a patient-specific therapeutic experience. TER distinguishes external/technology load, internal response, and a provisional concept of target-relevant therapeutic exposure within an iterative dose-response-adjustment loop. Realized therapeutic value is ultimately judged by meaningful transfer, not technology-native performance. TER is proposed to complement and connect, rather than replace, existing rehabilitation, technology-specific, design, and implementation frameworks.