Tedy's Team Gifts $1 Million

to Fund Center of Excellence

in Stroke Recovery

Tedy Bruschi, stroke survivor and former New England Patriot, and wife Heidi hope the partnership can build a stronger voice for stroke survivors while creating a new model for stroke rehabilitation.

Faculty Contributions Recognized at 2022 Fall Convocation

The 7th annual Fall Convocation on September 29 celebrated the start of the new academic year by recognizing outstanding faculty contributions in equity, research, education, and interprofessional practice. Gayun Chan-Smutko (left), Associate Chair and an associate professor of Genetic Counseling, was honored as the 33rd recipient of the Nancy T. Watts Award for Excellence in Teaching. 

The following other stories were published during September. In case you missed any of them, you can catch up here:

• A Helping Hand Through Life's Difficult Moments
• Rain Doesn't Dampen Spirits on First Day of Classes
• Delivering Health and Service into the Community
• Bachelor of Science in Nursing Program Jumps Seven Spots in Latest U.S. News & World Report Ranking
• Annual IHP Fundraiser Held with Focus on Bridging the Health Care Gap
• New Faculty Bring Experience, Passion to Campus
• Navigating the Graduate School Application Process
• Celebrating the Past, Looking to the Future
• Rehabilitation Today: How Has It Changed?
• Wanted: Coaching — in the Healthcare Space
• Center for Climate Change, Climate Justice, and Health Faculty join National League for Nursing in Vision Statement on Climate Change and Health 

The Charlestown Patriot-Bridge covered the celebratory completion of former IPC client Michael Obel-Omia's cross-country bike ride.

Rachel Cox, an assistant professor of nursing, was interviewed about the ongoing monkeypox outbreak by WBZ-AM radio on September 6, NBC Boston and NECN on September 8, and NBC Boston on September 15.

Zipe-Education spoke to Dr. Jordan Green, director of the Speech and Feeding Disorders Lab, about his research partnership with Modality. AI and their digital health app that they hope can help diagnose ALS, track its progression, and determine whether medicine used to treat the disease is effective 

Dr. Lisa Quinn, an assistant professor of nursing, was featured in Wicked Local and 22WWLP regarding the environmental and public health push she participated in at the Massachusetts State House. She discussed the impact of solar rooftops on air cleanliness, healthcare costs, and sick days for Massachusetts residents.

The Charlestown Patriot-Bridge ran a story on the 2022 Community IMACT Day.

Pillars of Excellence Award Nominations Due October 13

The deadline for nominating individuals or teams for a 2022 Pillars of Excellence Award is Thursday, October 13. Nominate your colleagues (individuals or teams) for a 2022 Pillars of Excellence Award in one of these categories:

• Commitment to an Exceptional Patient/Student Experience — providing quality, coordinated and compassionate care
• Collaborating Across the System — working across multiple institutions/functions to advance system strategic priorities and bring new value to patients
• Optimizing Teamwork — building partnerships among individuals and within departments to meet shared objectives
• Integrating Diversity, Equity & Inclusion — engaging each other with intention and enriching our work environment 
• Enhancing Efficiency — achieving outstanding outcomes with resourceful approaches
• Advancing Innovation & Progress — leading the development and implementation of new ideas
• Fostering Community — improving the health and well-being of our colleagues and neighbors

Additional information is available here, or you can contact MGB Employee Programs at 617-724-9743 or PillarsAwards@partners.org.

DPT Class of 2025 Welcomed into Profession 

The Department of Physical Therapy held its annual pinning ceremony on September 21 for its new cohort in the Doctor of Physical Therapy program. The 68 students in the Class of 2025 heard from several speakers, including Ana Sanchez Junkin, DPT '16 (pictured), an adjunct faculty member who works at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and alum A.J. Atkinson, DPT '22, before receiving their pins and taking the Pledge of Professionalism. 

OTD Class of 2025 Welcomed into Profession

The Department of Occupational Therapy held its annual pinning ceremony September 24 for the new cohort in the Doctor of Occupational Therapy program. Loren (Fields) McMahon, OTD '17 (pictured), who works at Boston Children's Hospital, gave the keynote address to the 37 students in the Class of 2025, who also received their pins and took the Pledge of Professionalism.

The Office of Student Affairs and Services greeted close to 600 students across various programs and events during Welcome Week, held September 12-16. Highlights included a President's Student Town Hall and meet-and-greet with the President's Cabinet, a Resource Fair on the Shouse back lawn, and an IHP community mixer at the Blackmoor Bar and Kitchen.

Sarah (Dolan) Looby, MS-NU '00, clinical research investigator, MGH Metabolism Unit and Yvonne L. Munn Center for Nursing Research, received the A. Clifford Barger Mentoring Award from the Harvard Medical School Office for Diversity Inclusion and Community Partnership.

Eight alumni were among 48 honorees from across the Spaulding Rehabilitation Network who received a 2022 John Means Spencer Caregiver Award. The annual award recognizes individuals who exemplify the values of innovation, collaboration, accountability, respect, and excellence. The alums are Afarin Assadian, DPT '12, Kathleen (Katie) Barnicle, DPT '13, Emily Boyle, MS-SLP '18, Urvashi Chogle, DPT '08, Eric L'Italien, DPT '14, Christina Ruggeri, DPT '18, David Soprano, BSN '16, and Eliza Stuart, DPT '14. 

OT Faculty and Alums Present in Paris

Department of Occupational Therapy faculty and alums presented their scholarship at the 18th World Federation of Occupational Therapy Congress, in Paris, France. The event is held every four years by the global network of

105 member organizations, representing 580,000 OTs.

Dr. Susan Fasoli co-presented with CSD faculty Dr. Bridget Perry on using the Interprofessional Rehabilitation Treatment Specification System (IRTSS) to facilitate clinical reasoning. Dr. Diane Smith presented on food insecurity and emergency preparedness for people with disabilities. Dr. Sarah McKinnon presented on implementing strategies to address JEDI principles and interprofessional educational curriculum implementation. (See details on their presentations below.) Loren (Fields) McMahon, OTD '17, presented on public augmentative and alternative communication access technology resources for occupational therapy. Nicole Bartlebaugh, OTD '19, presented on the prevalence of cognitive impairment among adults with low vision receiving home health services. 

Research Posters on Display

Fifteen of the Institute's researchers presented posters and discussed their work following the September 22 Board of Trustees' first meeting of the 2022-2023 academic year. The researchers were Yael Arbel, Karen Chenausky, Annie Fox, Jordan Green, Tiffany Hogan, Julie Keysor, Teresa Kimberley, Cathy Leslie, Ruth Palan Lopez, Kathy Lyons, Keshrie Naidoo, Prue Plummer, Sofia Vallila Rohter, Kathy Sabo, and

Lauryn Zipse. 

Grants

Dr. Jordan Green, director of the Speech and Language Disorders Lab, is the co-PI for a one-year Small Business Technology Transfer grant from the National Institutes of Health, “A Digital Tool for Monitoring Speech Decline in ALS.” 

Dr. Elissa Ladd, a professor of nursing, has a subcontract two-year grant with the Greenwall Foundation through the University of Toronto, “From Transparency to Moral Perception: Analysis of Conflicts of Interest Arising from Industry Payments to Advanced Practice Nurses and Their Practice Networks.”

Publications, Presentations & Posters 

COMMUNICATION SCIENCES AND DISORDERS

Eshghi, M., Yunusova, Y., Connaghan, K. P., Perry, B. J., Maffei, M. F., Berry, J. D., Zinman, L., Kalra, S., Korngut, L., Genge, A., Dionne, A., & Green, J. R. (2022). Rate of speech decline in individuals with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Scientific Reports, 12(1), Article 15713. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-19651-1

Okada, J., Wilson, E., Wong, J., Luo, M., Fiechtner, L., & Simione, M (PhD-RS ’17). (2022). Financial impacts and community resources utilization of children with feeding difficulties. BMC Pediatrics, 22(1), Article 508. 

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12887-022-03566-x

Rosenzweig, E. A., Voss, J. M., Melo, M. E., & Valencia, M. F. (2022). Family-Centered Intervention for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Multilingual Learners. In M. Musyoka (Ed.), 

Deaf Education and Challenges for Bilingual/Multilingual Students (pp. 225-245). IGI Global. https://www.igi-global.com/gateway/chapter/294147

Rowe, H. P., Shellikeri, S., Yunusova, Y., Chenausky, K. V., & Green, J. R. (2022). Quantifying articulatory impairments in neurodegenerative motor diseases: A scoping review and meta-analysis of interpretable acoustic features. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2022.2089234

Pittman, A. L. (2022, September). NAL vs DSL prescriptions in pediatric hearing aid users: How different are they really? Continuing education presentation. University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center Department of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery,

Austin, TX.

Pittman, A. L. (2022, August). Two hearing aids walk into a bar chart: NAL vs DSL in pediatric patients. Presentation. Mass Eye and Ear Audiology Department, Boston.

HEALTH PROFESSIONS EDUCATION

White, B. A. A., Picchioni, A., Gentry, L., Malek, A. J., Mrdutt, M. M., Fleshman, J. W., Bird, E. T., Arroliga, A. C., & Papaconstantinou, H. T. (2022). Closing the educational gap in surgery: Teaching team communication and conflict management. American Journal of Surgery, Article S0002961022005384. 

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjsurg.2022.08.015

White, B. A. A., Cola, P. A., Boyatzis, R. E., & Quinn, J. F. (2022). Editorial: Emotionally intelligent leadership in medicine. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, Article 999184. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.999184

INTERPROFESSIONAL COLLABORATION

Ianni, C., Magee, L., Dagli, C., Nicholas, M. L., & Connor, L. T. (2022). Self-reported emotional health and social support but not executive function are associated with participation after stroke. Topics in Stroke Rehabilitation, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/10749357.2022.2110192

McKinnon, S. & Perry, B. (2022 August). Practitioners who are online doctoral students: Experiences from an interprofessional curriculum between OTD and SLP-D clinical doctoral programs in the United States. Short course. World Federation of Occupational Therapy, Paris.

Sabo, K., Smith L., Pittmann, R. (2022 September). Interprofessional wellness groups:

A model for success. Platform presentation. NEXUS Summit, National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education. 

NURSING

Castro-Sánchez, E., Bosanquet, J., Courtenay, M., Gallagher, R., Gotterson, F., Manias, E., McEwen, J., Ness, V., Olans, R., Padoveze, M. C., Toit, B. du, & Bennasar-Veny, M. (2022). Nurses: An underused, vital asset against drug-resistant infections. Lancet, 400(10354), Article 729. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)01531-8

Gona, C. M., Palan-Lopez, R., Wood, L., Gotora, R. S., & Gona, P. N. (2022). African immigrant health: The health promotion beliefs of Zimbabwean immigrants in the United States. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 24(5), 1261–1268. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-021-01318-0

Levine, D. M., Paz, M., Burke, K., Beaumont, R., Boxer, R. B., Morris, C. A., Britton, K. A., Orav, E. J., & Schnipper, J. L. (2022). Remote vs in-home physician visits for hospital-level care at home: A randomized clinical trial. JAMA Network Open, 5(8), Article e2229067. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.29067

Xi, X., Li, Q., Wood, L. J., Bose, E., Zeng, X., Wang, J., Luo, X., & Wang, Q. M. (2022). Application of network analysis to uncover variables contributing to functional recovery after stroke. Brain Sciences, 12(8), Article 1065. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci12081065

OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY

Al-Rousan, T., Kamalyan, L., Bernstein Sideman, A., Miller, B., AlHeresh, R., Moore, A., Marquine, M. J., Argeros, G., & Ajrouch, K. J. (2022). Migration and cognitive health disparities: The Arab American and refugee case. Journals of Gerontology Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbac129

Golden, K., Erler, K. S., Wong, J., Giacino, J. T., & Bodien, Y. G. (2022). Should consistent command-following be added to the criteria for emergence from the minimally conscious state? Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 103(9), 1870–1873. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apmr.2022.03.010

Lyons, K. D., Forcino, R. C., Rotenberg, S., Schiffelbein, J. E., Morrissette, K. J., Godzik,

C. M., & Lichtenstein, J. D. (2022). “The last thing you have to worry about”: A thematic analysis of employment challenges faced by cancer survivors. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(18), Article 11214. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191811214

O’Donnell, M., & McKinnon, S. (2022). Advocating for change to meet the developmental needs of young children experiencing homelessness. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 76(5), Article 7605090010. https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2022.050114

Mansour, T. (2022). Mentorship program: Pediatric assessment, applied behavioral analysis, systematic data collection and occupational therapy facilitation in school-based practice. Presentation. Rwanda Occupational Therapy Association.

McKinnon, S. (2022 August). Implementing strategies in professional practice and education to address justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion: Results from an online educational offering for practitioners. Poster presentation. World Federation of Occupational Therapy, Paris.

Smith, D. L. (2022 August). Is emergency preparedness a “disaster” for people with disabilities in the US?: A role for OT. Presentation and poster. World Federation of Occupational Therapy 18th Congress, Paris. 

Smith, D. L. (2022 August). Food insecurity for people with disabilities in the U.S.: A role for OT addressing occupational justice and participation. Poster. World Federation of Occupational Therapy 18th Congress, Paris.

PHYSICAL THERAPY

Hayes, L., Smith, J., Garvey, E., McKeeby, M. Johnson, R, Bwala, G., Wills, A. M., Hung, A., & Plummer, L. (2022, September). Leveraging the virtual environment to promote health and wellness in individuals with Parkinson’s disease. Platform presentation. Colorado Health Symposium 2022.

REHABILITATION SCIENCES

Lovette, B. C., Kanaya, M. R., Bannon, S. M., Vranceanu, A.M., & Greenberg, J. (2022). “Hidden gains”? Measuring the impact of mindfulness-based interventions for people with mild traumatic brain injury: A scoping review. Brain Injury, 36(9), 1059–1070. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699052.2022.2109745

Grunberg, V. A., Reichman, M., Lovette, B. C., Vranceanu, A. M., & Greenberg, J. (2022). “No one truly understands what we go through and how to treat it”: Lived experiences with medical providers among patients with orofacial pain. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(16), Article 10396. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191610396

New Employees

Matthew Picard-Fraser

Doctoral Research Fellow

Brain Recovery Lab 

Caitlin Koehler

Lab Manager

Brain Recovery Lab

Gwendolyn Larsen

Instructor

Physical Therapy

Katharine Radville

Doctoral Research Fellow

SAiL Lab 

Serena Fasano Rosa

Assistant Professor

School of Nursing

KaRynn Sheranian

Doctoral Research Fellow

SAiL Lab 

Ehsan Sinaei

Doctoral Research Fellow

Physical Therapy

Lindsay Sundberg

Program Manager

School of Healthcare Leadership

Andrea Takahesu-Tabori

Doctoral Research Fellow

BEAM Lab

Promotions

Carla Donati

Assistant Dean, Administration

School of Nursing

Emily Eddy

Program Director, Entry-Level Doctor of Occupational Therapy

Occupational Therapy

Patricia Peterson

Clinical Education Placement & Systems Associate

Occupational Therapy

Transfer/New Role

Hailey Laflin

Clinical Education Placement & Systems Associate

Physical Therapy

October Calendar 

10/1 – 10/31: LGBT History Month

10/1 – 10/31: National Disability Employment Awareness Month

10/1: Virtual Conference: Connecting Physical Therapy Practice, Social Justice, and Health Equity

10/4 – 10/5: Yom Kippur

10/8: Eid-Mawlid an-Nabi

10/9 – 10/16: Sukkot

10/10: Indigenous Peoples' Day.

Offices Closed.

10/10: Last Day to Elect the Pass/Fail Option

10/10: Last Day to Drop a Class Without a Withdrawal “W” Grade –

No Refunds After This Date

10/10 – 10/28: Advisement/

Registration Period for Spring 2023

10/11: National Coming Out Day

10/13: Crafting and Communicating “Transparent” Assignments

10/14: Official Graduation Date for PA Program Graduates

10/17 –10/18: Shemini Atzeret

10/17: Parkinson's Care Partner Support Group

10/20: Faculty Book Group: Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain and Pooja K. Agarwal

10/21: Child Development Day

10/24 – 10/28: Diwali

10/24: Last Day to Drop a Class with a Withdrawal “W” Grade

10/25: Parkinson's Wellness Group

10/26: Faculty Lunch Bite: Burnout