Planning Grant Collective 2021: Fatigue: An Understudied Barrier to Participating Fully in Daily Life

January 18-20, 2022

The 2021 AOTF Planning Grant Collective, “Fatigue: An Understudied Barrier to Participating Fully in Daily Life” was held virtually again this year.  Considering many conditions have fatigue as a major characteristic, all of the issues related to the ongoing pandemic and what appears to be a major comorbidity in COVID “long haulers”, the topic chosen was very timely.  A wide range of disciplines was represented at the workshop, as well as several funding agencies including the Arthritis Foundation, the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR), the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) and the following NIH Institutes/Centers: National Cancer Institute (NCI); National Institute on Aging (NIA); and National Center for Complimentary and Integrative Health (NCCIH).

New priority areas of research were identified and included: the need for identification of fatigue subgroups/deep phenotypes; novel trial designs and comparative effectiveness research; implementation science research to improve delivery and effectiveness of fatigue interventions; and the need for consistent and comparable treatment taxonomy.

The Foundation plans to convene one Collective a year and plans are underway for 2022.  We believe this interdisciplinary approach to identifying important research topics will result in critical new research in questions of great interest and opportunity for the OT profession.

View OTJR article for summary of the key concepts and recommendations: 
Fatigue as an Understudied Barrier to Participation in Life Roles. OTJR: Occupational Therapy Journal of Research. 2023;0(0). doi:10.1177/15394492231180833, Poole JL, Murphy SL, Foster ER, et al.

Planning Grant Committee
Co-Chairs:  Janet Poole, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA, University of New Mexico and Susan Murphy, ScD OTR/L, University of Michigan
Erin Foster, PhD, OTD, MSCI, OTR/L, Washington University
Virgil Mathiowetz, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA, University of Minnesota
MJ Mulcahey, PhD, OTR/L, CPPC, CLCP, FASIA, Thomas Jefferson University
Alix Sleight Warner, PhD, OTD, MPH, OTR/L, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Scott Campbell, PhD, Chief Executive Officer, American Occupational Therapy Foundation
Dunsin Akinyemi, BS, Grants Administrator,  American Occupational Therapy Foundation

Participants
Kristine Carandang, PhD, OTR/L, University of Wisconsin - River Falls
Patricia Katz, PhD, University of California San Francisco
Marcia Finlayson, PhD, OT Reg (Ont), OTR, Queens University
Linda Ehrlich Jones, PhD, RN, Shirley Ryan AbilityLab
Don Fogelberg, PhD, OTR/L, University of Washington
Lauren Krupp, MD, New York University Langone Health
Jason Bouffard, PhD, Laval University
Daniel Whibley, PhD, PT, University of Michigan
Kathy Lyons, ScD, OTR/L, Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professions Darthomouth College
Tanya Packer, PhD, OT Reg(NS), Dalhousie University
Matthew Plow, PhD, OT, Case Western Reserve University
Kathy Preissner, PhD, OTR/L, University of Illinois-Chicago
Toni Vandenend, PhD, OTR/L, University of Illinois-Chicago
Sherry Hite, MOT, OTR/L, City of Hope Medical Center
Heather Jim, PhD, Moffit Cancer Center
Ketki Raina, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA, University of Pittsburgh
Arash Asher, MD, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Aileen Ledingham, PT, MS, PhD, Boston University School of Public Health
Yen Chen, PhD, University of Michigan

Partners 
Nick Turkas, Arthritis Foundation 
Pimjai Sudsawad, ScD, NIDILRR
Inna Belfer, MD, PhD, NCCIH
Lyndon Joseph, PhD, Institute of Aging, (NIA)
Janet de Moor, PhD, MPH, National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Sarah Ruiz, PCORI