Associate Professor Valerie E. Kelly, PT, PhD, and Associate Professor Sujata Pradhan, PT, PhD, were recently recognized by the Academy of Leadership and Innovation (ALI) – Technology Committee for their collaborative research on virtual reality tools that measure and improve gait in people with Parkinson’s disease.
The award was presented during the American Physical Therapy Association Combined Sections Meeting (APTA CSM), held February 12–14 in Anaheim, California.
Kelly and three Doctor of Physical Therapy students—Jiayi Shen, Miles Tibbits, and Zoe Chang—received third place for their group’s presentation. The team did not submit their abstracts to a competition. Rather, the ALI Technology Committee reviewed all presentations at the conference and selected winners based on the strength and innovation of the work.
The students’ individual presentations represented sub-projects within the larger research program led by Kelly and Pradhan. Their studies included:
- “Gait impairments in Parkinson disease and healthy controls during navigation of a virtual reality doorway” (Zoe Chang; Assistant Teaching Professor Kathleen Cummer, PT, DPT, PhD; Dr. Pradhan; Dr. Kelly)
- “Effect of virtual reality simulated environmental constraints on turning performance in individuals with Parkinson disease” (Miles Tibbits, Zoe Chang, Dr. Pradhan, Dr. Kelly)
- “The effect of personalized virtual cueing on gait impairments in people with Parkinson’s disease” (Jiayi Shen, Miles Tibbits, Zoe Chang, Dr. Pradhan, Dr. Kelly)
Pradhan also recently received a Royalty Research Fund grant to support a one-year study of gait impairments in home and community settings using wearable and augmented reality technologies. Read more: Pradhan receives grant $39,980 for gait study
