Boston University hosted the prestigious 6th Occupational Therapy Summit of Scholars Symposium in June 2017. I-MAP was represented with three cutting edge scientific presentations.
Sherrilene Classen, PhD, MPH, OTR/L, FAOTA, FGSA, presented interim findings from a Department of Defense funded effectiveness trial of a simulator-based occupational therapy driving intervention for combat veterans.
Sandra Winter, PhD, OTR/L, and Ms. Emily Reid, BHS, presented qualitative findings informing the effectiveness trial, and elaborated on a grounded theory model for understanding combat veterans’ driving difficulties, strategies, and intervention preferences.
Ms. Shabnam Medhizadah, a first year PhD student in the UF RSD Program, won third place in the national student poster competition. Ms. Medhizadah’s mentors on the project were Dr. Sherrilene Classen from the University of Florida and Dr. Andrew Johnson from the University of Western Ontario. Her poster entitled, “Constructing and Validating the Short Form Fitness-to-Drive Screening Measure,” focused on the development of the 32-item short form Fitness-to-Drive Screening Measure that identifies at-risk older drivers using caregiver responses. Exploratory factor analysis and classical test theory techniques were used to reduce the number of items in the tool from 54 to 32. Pearson’s r and receiver operating characteristics curve results indicated the tool had good predictive validity and could discriminate between drivers that passed or failed the on-road assessment. Congratulations Shabnam!