The American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine (ACRM) recently held the largest annual conference in the world for interdisciplinary rehabilitation research. It brought together researchers, clinicians, administrators, and others to learn about innovative research and its translation into clinical practice. Faculty from the UAB Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) were key contributors in making the 2024 conference a success.
Victor Mark, M.D., associate professor, was part of a panel of experts who presented a course on “Rehabilitation for Functional Neurological Disorder.” This pre-conference instructional course taught the attendees the knowledge and skills to evaluate and manage the rehabilitation of Functional Neurological Disorder.
Associate Professor, Jereme Wilroy, Ph.D., was part of a panel of experts for an ACRM early career development course, “Meeting Your Career Expectations: Aligning Multiple Definitions of Success with a Career in Rehabilitation Medicine.” This full-day workshop offered attendees the opportunity for a casual, interactive exchange with experienced mentors.
Yuying Chen, M.D., Ph.D., professor and vice chair of PM&R research, presented on multiple topics. Dr. Chen was a part of a symposium, “Non-traumatic Spinal Cord Injury - Characteristics and Outcomes of Patients from the Model System Pilot Study and National Data for Older Americans,” that described two efforts to better understand the characteristics and outcomes of patients receiving rehabilitation services following a non-traumatic spinal cord injury. In another symposium, “The SCI Model Systems Environmental Factors Datasets: Development and Validation of Composite Measures of Neighborhood Economic Factors,” Dr. Chen, who is also director of the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center, was a co-presenter in describing the collaborative process used to develop composite measures of neighborhood economic factors for use in cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses conducted with the national SCI Model Systems database. Finally, Dr. Chen was among a group of presenters in a 2-part symposium, “Conducting Research Using the Spinal Cord Injury Model Systems Database.” Part 1 offered a Database overview and how to access the data. Part 2 offered case studies and best practices for analyses and reporting of research using large data sets.
Assistant Professor, Fedora Biney, Ph.D., and Traumatic Brain Injury Research Director, Jennifer Marwitz, M.A., were among the presenters discussing their findings from a collaborative research study, “Traumatic Brain Injury Caregivers: Understanding the Resilience, Readiness, and Resources Needed to Improve Health, Functioning and Needs Post-injury.”
PM&R was also among presenting authors during ACRM’s Poster Sessions. Dr. Biney presented research findings with the poster, “Linguistic Markers of Support in Stoke Survivor-caregiver Dyads: Preliminary Findings;” Dr. Chen presented research findings with the poster, “Harmonization of Databases for Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury;” and Associate Professor, Rachel Cowan, Ph.D., presented two posters on research findings with, “The 6-minute Push Test: Construct Validity and Responsiveness of a Simple Test to Assess Fitness Status in Persons with Spinal Cord Injury” and “Clinicians Report High Usability, Perceived Usefulness and Value of a Novel Wheelchair Wheel Rolling Resistance Clinical Decision Support System.”
ACRM is a global community of both researchers and consumers of research, in the field of rehabilitation. ACRM is the only professional association representing all members of the interdisciplinary rehabilitation team, including researchers and scientists, physicians, clinicians and nurses, counselors and therapists, case managers and administrators, biomedical engineers, and others.