Research

Research Overview

Many interprofessional research opportunities are available in Occupational Therapy. Faculty engage in innovative research, evidence-based and data-driven projects with students, colleagues, and community partners.

Research that Advances Health and Quality of Lives to:

• Address the occupational performance of persons across the lifespan focusing on those meaningful everyday activities that together build meaningful lives.
• Translate research discoveries to occupational therapy practice.
• Innovate how students best learn to become occupational therapists.
• Explain how engagement in occupation advances health and improves quality of life

Faculty Research

Examples of current project aims addressed by OT faculty include:

• Building novel technology for health care management for wheelchair users.
• Establishing predictive validity of cognitive-functional assessment of community dwelling older adults.  
• Describing the occupations of older adults with Alzheimer’s disease in adult day service programs
• Establishing person-level factors which predict responsiveness to occupational therapy interventions for persons with hand osteoarthritis
• Describing how the history of occupational therapy explains current practice issues and trends
• Developing statewide emergency preparedness plan for Minnesotans with disability.
• Understanding the effect of innovative educational interventions on student learning
  • Impact standardized simulations
  • Impact of  innovative technologies such as virtual reality
  • Cohorts as learning communities