Medical rehabilitation, while fulfilling the tasks of preventing disability of the population, is characterized not only by its humanistic, but also by its crucial economic importance as a means of preserving and increasing human capital. Based on the analysis of scientific publications on the research topic in peer-reviewed scientific journals, carried out using general scientific methods of analysis, synthesis, structuring and grouping of information, the paper shows that the world experience in organizing medical rehabilitation is characterized by some common solutions: a variety of rehabilitation treatment facilities that allow providing rehabilitation care in the right volume and as close as possible to the place of residence patient; widespread rehabilitation at home and at the community level; great attention to the payback of rehabilitation measures and the allocation of vocational rehabilitation as a leading area. At the same time, in Russia, the current state of the medical rehabilitation system is the result of prolonged spontaneous development in the absence of a unified theoretical, regulatory and organizational framework. This causes both its problems: lack of methodological unity and continuity of rehabilitation programs and institutions; insufficient material and technical equipment and staffing of rehabilitation institutions; the eclectic variety of forms and methods of organization of medical rehabilitation, along with the underdevelopment of its outpatient link, and others; as well as the most relevant areas of development.

medical rehabilitation, social rehabilitation, rehabilitation medicine, restorative medicine, review.