DEPARTMENT OF REHABILITATION SCIENCES - NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

2009 Endeavor Games Research Team



Dr. Jan’s research team for the recruitment of people with spinal cord injury at the 2009 Endeavor Games. Mizi Abyad is Research Coordinator of the research team (far right); Bernie Lee is a graduate student interested in spinal cord injury research (middle).

 


Dr. Jan and his research team at the 2009 Endeavor Games. (Back) Dr. Fuyuan Liao (far left), Dr. Mark Anderson (Medical Director of Endeavor Games), Bernie Lee (Masters student in Physiology), Dr. Yih-Kuen Jan (Principal Investigator). (Front) Josè Nieves, an athlete with spinal cord injury from Puerto Rico.


2009 TULSA RUN


Students from OU’s physical therapy program joined forces with the OU department of family medicine physicians to offer soft tissue manual therapy and post-run stretches at the Tulsa Run finish line, which happened on Halloween. OU physicians served as the referral source for the runners, and the students were supervised by OU physical therapy faculty. An estimated 6,000 runners participated in the event, with approximately 232 runners receiving relief following their 15 kilometer run around Tulsa. Third-year MPT students and second-year DPT students mentored first-year students in the care of the runners. Over 60 students from both the Oklahoma City and Tulsa campuses volunteered for the event.

Tulsa Run
Tulsa Run
Tulsa Run
Tulsa Run

2009 Allied Health Professions Week


Chesney

Caption: Dr. Yih-Kuen Jan, Director of Rehabilitation Biomechanics Research Laboratory and his research team discuss ongoing research projects on pressure ulcer prevention and management with Scott Chesney during the Allied Health Professions Week at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. Scott Chesney is an Ambassador for the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation. Scott is a two-time world traveler and a navigator of life with paralysis for two decades, has presented to over one million people in 38 countries. Dr. Jan is currently conducting a research study to investigate the effectiveness of local skin cooling on preventing pressure ulcers in people with spinal cord injury funded by the Reeve Foundation. Later, Scott, Dr. Jan, and Bernie Lee (graduate student in Dr. Jan’s lab) attended the paralysis support group at the Jim Thorpe Rehabilitation Hospital to promote spinal cord injury research. Scott Chesney (far left), Dr. Jan, Mandip Aryal, MS (research technician), and Bernie Lee.


SAMPSON

Note the new face sitting in on classes with the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences students.   “Samson at Your Service” is a Labrador retriever who is going to school and learning how to become a service dog.  Samson learns many of the same skills that occupational therapy and physical therapy students learn, such as how to help a person with mobility issues transfer into and out of a wheelchair.  In addition, he is also learning how to open and close doors, turn on and off lights, and retrieve dropped items.  Samson is a part of the Therapetics program in Tulsa, Oklahoma and occupational therapy faculty Mary Isaacson is one of his trainers. 


SUMMER 2009


Caption: Michael Hakim, INBRE scholar, and Dr Carol Dionne, his Mentor for the IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence Summer Research Program (INBRE) Undergraduate research training program concerning  Dr Dionne’s study, Development of clinical profile for lumbar disc disease.


The 2009 Endeavor Games research team


Researchers from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC) conducted a research study funded by the Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) Research Foundation to investigate how exercise enhances microvascular function for reducing pressure ulcer risk during the Endeavor Games on June 11-14, 2009. The Endeavor Games is a nationally recognized competition that allows all athletes with physical disabilities to participate in a multi-sport event. The research project is entitled “Remodeling autonomic nervous system and endothelium with exercise for preventing pressure ulcers in people with spinal cord injury” and the principal investigator of the research grant is Dr. Yih-Kuen Jan, Assistant Professor of Rehabilitation Sciences and Director of Rehabilitation Biomechanics Laboratory at the OUHSC.


MAY


Dr. Carol Dionne and guest lecturers walk to support Limbs for Life Foundation in the Bricktown Blaze event May 2, 2009. Two of guest lecturers and Dr Carol Dionne from Rehabilitation Sciences participated in the Bricktown Blaze for the Limbs for life Foundation as members of the “Team Cosby 2009.” The team walked 1 mile in less than 15 minutes with   “No Limb-atations”.

Walk
Walk

2nd annual ertl symposium


The 2nd Annual Ertl Symposium was held on April 17th and 18th. Basic researchers, physicians, physician assistants, prosthetists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, and amputees and their caretakers attended in the auditorium of the College of Health building on the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center campus. The symposium was sponsored by the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences in the College of Allied Health and the Department of Orthopedic Surgery and Rehabilitation in the College of Medicine.

Dionne
Panel
Ertl

Left picture: Dr. Carol Dionne presents at Ertl Symposium 2009 on rehabilitation of people with osteomyoplastic lower limb amputations.
Center picture: Presenters Debra Cosby; Ron King, Dr William Ertl
Right picture: Dr William Ertl Key note speaker


CONGRATULATIONS TO

Jan
Congratulations to Dr. Yih-Kuen Jan! His R03 grant on heelchair research was funded. His co-investigators are Dr. Foreman and Dr. Jones.


CONGRATULATIONS TO


On April 29, 2009 Dr. Ken Randall, Assistant Professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences received from Dr. G. Clancy the OU-Tulsa President’s 2009 Leadership Award in Community Service. Dr. Randall was noted for his community work. This includes organizing occupational and physical therapy students and faculty to provide services to runners during and following Tulsa’s annual Route 66 Marathon. Another major service includes the Tulsa Ballet “To the Pointe” prevention, treatment and education project he developed and offers for the troupe’s dancers. Physical therapy students work with Dr. Randall in meeting the needs of these dancers through this project.

Dr Ken Randall



CONGRATULATIONS TO


Melanie Thomas, Doctor of Physical Therapy Student, College of Allied Health (center) receiving first place award of $750 for her essay in the Rose Society Essay Contest held at the OUHSC from  Sherry Barton of the Jewish Federation of Greater Oklahoma City, sponsor of the contest; and Dr. Joseph Ferretti, Provost and Senior Vice President of the OUHSC.


MARCH 2009

Spinal Manipulation

In March 2009 we offered the Sixth Annual Spinal Manipulation Update course series with Peter Gibbons and Philip Tehan of Melbourne, Australia.  Click here to view the 2009 brochure.

The program was very well-received, was attended by physical therapists and physicians from Oklahoma and more than 20 other states, and was sponsored by the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences and the Oklahoma Physical Therapy Association.

CONTACT INFORMATION


Department of Rehabilitation Sciences

University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
1200 N Stonewall, Oklahoma City, OK 73104
Phone: (405) 271-2131, Email: Department Contact

 
 
   

Copyright 2000-2007, Department of Rehabilitation Sciences

   
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