In celebration of OT Month, the American Occupational Therapy Foundation (AOTF) announced a new iPad® raffle. Completed AOTF Scavenger Hunts between April 24-29 were entered to win one of three Apple iPads®, sponsored by OccupationalTherapy.com.

And the winners are...

Thanks to everybody that participated!

Winners will be emailed for their address to send their iPads to.

Established in 1983, the AOTF Academy of Research in Occupational Therapy recognizes individuals who have made exemplary and distinguished contributions toward the science of occupational therapy. Our 2020 inductee is Jennifer Fleming, PhD, OTR/L, FOTARA, Professor and Head of Occupational Therapy at The University of Queensland. Her research aims to improve the lives of people with brain impairment by understanding psychosocial and cognitive limitations arising from neurological injury and discovering effective occupation-based rehabilitation methods. She is a Fellow of the Occupational Therapy Australia Research Academy and Fellow of the Australasian Society for the Study of Brain Impairment (ASSBI), and co-Editor of the journal, Brain Impairment.

Identify three words that others have used to describe you: Open-minded, supportive, capable

How do you hope to make a difference in the world through research? I hope that my research helps occupational therapists and other members of the multidisciplinary team to develop better ways to work with people with brain injury.

What is one piece of advice you have for individuals considering a career in science and research?  Never miss the conference dinner!

Beside your own areas of inquiry, what is one research priority that you believe is important for the future of occupational science and occupational therapy?  The relationship between mental health and occupation.

Describe the most important role that mentors played in your professional journey: Encouraging me to apply for things that I would not have dreamt of going for.

Identify a favorite occupation that renews you outside of your work: Walking on the beach.

What has been the most surprising or rewarding aspects of a career in science and research? Most rewarding is seeing the excellence that is developing in the next generation of occupational therapy researchers.

Selected references:

Ownsworth, T., Fleming, J., Tate, R., Beadle, E., Griffin, J., Kendall, E., Schmidt, J., Lane-Brown, A., Chevingnard, M., & Shum, D. (2017). Do people with severe traumatic brain injury benefit from making errors? A randomized controlled trial of error-based and errorless learning. Journal of Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair, 31 (12) 1072-1082.

Schmidt, J., Fleming, J., Ownsworth, T., & Lannin, N. (2013). Video-feedback on functional task performance improves self-awareness after traumatic brain injury: A randomised controlled trial. NeuroRehabilitation and Neural Repair, 27, 316-324. doi: 10.1177/1545968312469838

Fleming, J., Nalder, N., Alves-Stein, S., & Cornwell, P. (2014). The effect of environmental barriers on community integration for individuals with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury. Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation, 29(2), 125-135.

Fleming, J., Sampson, J., Cornwell, P., Turner, B., & Griffin, J. (2012). Brain injury rehabilitation: The lived experience of inpatients and their family caregivers. Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 19, 184-193.

Fleming, J.M., Strong, J. & Ashton, R. (1996). Self-awareness of deficits in adults with traumatic brain injury.  How best to measure? Brain Injury, 10, 1-15.

When the notice of a personal protection equipment(PPE) shortage came out during the current epidemic, Sook-Lei Liew, PhD, OTR/L, started looking for ways to help. As Assistant Professor and Director of the Neural Plasticity and Neurorehabilitation Laboratory at USC, she and her team uses 3D printing to fabricate parts, such as those for their brain-computer interface project for stroke rehabilitation.

With her highly sought-after medical 3D printing experience, she joined over 150 faculty, students and alumni at USC, including fellow OTs, who are printing PPE designs approved for clinical use. They are part of a larger unified effort, along with several architecture firms and nonprofits, supplying parts to USC’s Keck Hospital who assembles, sterilizes, and distributes the finished PPEs.

“As an OT, I worked closely with our amazing heroic clinical OTs at USC Keck Hospital who would be using the PPE to see what they needed/preferred,” said Liew.

The PPE’s, such as N95 replacement masks and face shields, are utilized not only onsite at Keck, but also supplied throughout LA county, Cedars Sinai, local clinics, with an effort underway to ship to other places where they are needed such as New York.

“It is great to be a part of this massive effort,” said Liew, ”it is very exciting to see such a large community mobilize.”