Establishing Seating and Wheeled Mobility Research Priorities
By Sprigle, Stephen; Cohen, Laura; Davis, Kim; Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology, Vol. 2, No. 3, pp. 169-172Publication Date: May 2007
Paper focuses on the State of the Science Conference held by the Mobility Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center at the Georgia Institute of Technology to address challenges in studying the health, activity, and participation of people who use wheelchairs. The purpose of this project was to collect and report seating and wheeled mobility research priorities. Participation invitations were sent to researchers, clinicians, policy makers, manufacturers, methodologists, people who use wheelchairs, and federal funding agency scientists. People who were invited submitted their three most important wheeled mobility and seating issues, while Submissions were blinded and collated into distinct topic areas. Conference attendees voted on these topic areas, and narrowed the priorities into four mobility and four seating/posture topics. Wheeled Mobility research priorities included the following: (1) impact of long term wheelchair use, (2) relating activity and participation to health outcomes, (3) translating research into design, and (4) impact of wheelchair design on function. The Seating/Posture research priorities included determining cushion adequacy, positioning abilities of cushions, long term impact of sitting, and impact of seating & mobility interventions. Implications for future research are discussed.
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Limited (Website:http://taylorandfrancis.org)
International Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (Web Site: http://www.isprm.org )
