Time Toxicity: The Side Effect of Rehabilitation Interventions That You’re Not Talking About

Id 22
Topic Research
Main Speaker Nathan S Rosenber USA
Co Speakers
Attendees
Extra Fees

Rehabilitation technology has advanced and more options have become available to people receiving care in our realm. With all medical decisions, we consider side effects of treatment including physical effects, cost and even potential societal impact. One side effect that has had limited consideration is the time cost of intervention. This has been defined as “time toxicity.” Considerations include but are not limited to time spent receiving medical care, travel time and time spent coordinating or seeking out effective care. When calculated, it can be massive and represent a potential negative impact on quality of life.

There are also research measurements available help calculate this impact for prospective studies. Time toxicity as a concept is gaining heavier utilization in cancer care areas but have been sparsely applied to rehabilitation to date, except for a pair of articles linking the concept to acute stroke intervention.

The aim of this short lecture is to present the concept of time toxicity, share our invited narrative publication on the topic as it pertains to rehabilitation (Developmental Medicine Child Neurology journal, release month spring/summer 2025) and demonstrate clinical applications for shared decision making in the realms of brain/spine rehabilitation, cancer rehabilitation, pediatric rehabilitation and pain rehabilitation.