Rehabilitation Research Career Development (RRCD) Program

RRCD News

• Scholars Receive AOTF Awards
  

  Every year, the American Occupational Therapy Foundation (AOTF) bestows awards and honors to individuals that contribute time, energy, and support to the fulfillment of the AOTF mission- advancing the science of occupational therapy. The awards are presented annually at the AOTA/AOTF Awards Ceremony. Congratulations to the following RRCD Scholars being honored at this year's event.

  • ACADEMY OF RESEARCH - Shawn C. Roll, PhD, OTR/L, RMSKS, FAOTA, FAIUM, University of Southern California Los Angeles, California
  • AOTF EARLY CAREER RESEARCH EXCELLENCE AWARD - Chih-Ying "Cynthia" Li, PhD, OTR/L, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston,
  • AOTF A. JEAN AYRES AWARD - Leah Stein Duker, PhD, OTR/L, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California
• Scholar MJ Lee, PhD, BSOT Receives New VA Grant
  RRCD Scholar MJ Lee, PhD, BSOT has been awarded $87,327 from the Department of Veterans Affairs for her one year project, "Identifying Risk Factors for Rural Veteran Institutionalization Using Artificial Intelligence," with Co-PI Gail Castaneda.
• Scholar Amber Angell, PhD, OTR/L Receives New AOTF Grant
  RRCD Scholar Amber Angell, PhD, OTR/L received a 2020 American Occupational Therapy Foundation (AOTF) Health Services Research Grant, "Health Services Utilization of Autistic Youth - Are Therapeutic Services Associated with Reduced Acute Psychiatric Care?"
• Scholar Amber M. Angell, PhD, OTR/L Discusses the RRCD Program
   "As a RRCD K12 Scholar, I have had numerous opportunities – for mentorship, training, coursework, travel, collaboration, and scholarship – that I would not otherwise have," says Dr. Angell.
  
  "The support of the K12 award enables me to devote time to getting my research lab up and running; to travel to NIH-funded labs across the country to learn about innovative and groundbreaking research being carried out by leaders in the field; and to present my work at national research conferences, with opportunities for constructive feedback from other scientists." Read more from Dr. Angell about the RRCD Program.
  
• Data Science in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation: Opportunities and Challenges
  A new scientific journal article has been published, Data Science in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation: Opportunities and Challenges, by Division Director Ken Ottenbacher, PhD, OTR and colleagues James Graham, PhD, DC, Professor of Occupational Therapy and Director of the Center for Community Partnerships (CCP) from Colorado State University and Steve Fisher, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at UTMB.

  Key points

  • Data science represents a new approach to developing knowledge in biomedical research.
  • Data science is producing innovative ways to acquire, store, analyze, and interpret large amounts of diverse medical and health-related information.
  • The implementation of data science will enhance the ability of physical medicine and rehabilitation to reduce disability and improve health care services and outcomes.
• Scholar Ickpyo Hong, OTR, PhD Publishes Papers
  RRCD Scholar Ickpyo Hong, OTR, PhD has published two new papers:

  • Cross-national health comparisons using the Rasch model: findings from the 2012 US Health and Retirement Study and the 2012 Mexican Health and Aging Study.
  • Leisure Participation Patterns for School Age Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Findings from the 2016 National Survey of Children’s Health

  Congrats, Dr. Hong!

• Scholar Emily J. Fox, PT, DPT, PhD Receives DoD Grant
  

  Emily J. Fox, PT, DPT, PhD, received a $2.36M grant from the DoD Congressional Directed Medical Research Program (DOD CDMRP).  The 2-year project will study Acute Intermittent Hypoxia and Respiratory Strength Training to Improve Breathing Function after [Spinal Cord Injury] (SCI) at the University of Florida.

• Researchers Hope Dataset Will Help Stroke Patients
  The dataset, known as Anatomical Tracings of Lesion After Stroke (ATLAS), is now available for download; researchers around the world already are using the scans to develop and test algorithms that can automatically process MRI images from stroke patients.
  
  “One of our goals is to meta-analyze thousands of stroke MRIs from around the world to understand how the lesions impact recovery,” said Sook-Lei Liew, PhD, OTR/L lead author of the study and assistant professor with joint appointments at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, the USC Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, the USC Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy and the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. Read full article...
  
  This article is also published here:
  Nature.com
  ScienceDaily.com
  HealthDataManagement.com
  
• Scholar Sook-Lei Liew Earns K01
  Sook-Lei Liew was awarded a Mentored Research Scientist Development (K01) Award from the National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research in the NICHD (grant# K01 HD091283) beginning April, 2017.
• Scholar J. Addie Middleton earns CoHSTAR award & accepts new position
  J. Addie Middleton accepted a faculty position at the Medical University of South Carolina in July, 2017. In addition, she was the recipient of a faculty fellowship from the Center on Health Services Training and Research in June, 2017.
• RRCD Program Refunded
  The RRCD program is supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health (K12HD055929). It has been renewed for an additional five years, through August, 2022.