KMDI Seminar – Rehabilitation Technologies: Why are they not yet disruptive?

This event is co-hosted by HFIG, IATS and MIVE / CEAL

Guest Speaker: Patrice L. (Tamar) Weiss, PhD, OT (Department of Occupational Therapy, University of Haifa)

Abstract

“Disruptive innovation” leads to technologies that invigorate an existing approach to practice in a way that completely shifts the existing consensus. There are many examples of disruptive innovations that have changed society, including steam engines, motor vehicles, airplanes, computers and, more recently, mobile phones and social media. Disruptive innovations in rehabilitation have been more elusive, with many advances (e.g., robotics, virtual reality and tablets) not yet reaching Gladwell’s “tipping point,” wherein a series of small changes or incidents become sufficient to trigger a larger, more important transformation of practice. This presentation will explore the factors that both promote and impede disruptive innovations in rehabilitation.

About the speaker

Patrice L. (Tamar) Weiss is a Professor at the Department of Occupational Therapy at the University of Haifa, Israel.  Professor Weiss is an occupational therapist, with a M.Sc. degree in Kinesiology from the University of Waterloo and a Ph.D. in Physiology and Biomedical Engineering from McGill University. Professor Weiss is founder and head of the Laboratory for Innovations in Rehabilitation Technologies (LIRT) at the University of Haifa, which focuses on the development and evaluation of novel virtual environments, computer interfaces, and co-located technologies to explore their effects on body functions (e.g. motor and cognitive abilities), activities (e.g. meal preparation) and participation in community life. LIRT’s rehabilitation populations include patients with spinal cord injury, stroke, cerebral palsy, developmental coordination disorder, autism and head trauma.