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Awesome TEDtalk by Todd Kuiken about Targeted Muscle Reinnervation (the future of UE prothesis). This is a much watch video about the future of UE prosthesis. Targeted Muscle Reinnervation is an intuitive way to use hand and elbow prothesis with your thoughts. This is a better way to control your arm and grasp patterns. And hopefully in the future this technology will allow its users to 'feel' sensations in their prosthetic hand. Amanda, the patient talks about how the most important thing to her in working with children was the ability to clap again. Great video! Very informative.

About a year ago, Zac Vawter climbed all 103 flights of stairs of the Willis Tower in Chicago. On its own, this accomplishment would be pretty unremarkable, but Vawter, who lost his leg four years ago during a motorcycle accident, happened climb more than 2,000 steps while wearing a prosthetic leg.. This is so awesome! I love searching to see where the future of prosthetics is going.

I heard this on the radio today and had to share after I investigated ...this should bring up a video... with all the talk about the movie Back to the Future officially being in the past after tomorrow, nike plans to unveil self-tying shoe laces like the ones Marty had in the movie! The first thought in my head was how many people that could actually benefit from this if it works. I just kept picturing the COTA I was with during level 1 FW putting the elastic laces in several patients shoes. I hope this becomes a reality for people who need it, not lazy people who just want cool shoes that CAN and are ABLE to tie their shoes!

This sight has some great ideas for those who know they or someone they love will need assistive devices in the future. It shares ideas for planning and recognizing needs that may arise. It even has info and links to various suppliers that could help with all kinds of adaptive equipment.

CarFit is a community based program that sponsors events (as a collaborative effort between AOTA, AAA, and AARP) with the purpose of inspecting the older driver in their own vehicle. "trained technicians and/or health professionals work with each participant to ensure they "fit" their vehicle properly for maximum comfort and safety". It takes about 20 mins after which recommendations for adjustments and adaptations are provided. The website provides FAQs and videos with a lot of information pertaining to the older driver and driver safety. Those of you interested in driving rehab may be interested in participating in an event such as this as a COTA in the future.

This youtube video by Markerbot and Robohand shows how two men use a 3D printer to design and make prosthetic hands.  The 3D printer allowed them to make cost effective mechanical hands for boys born without hands.  The mechanical hands work due to 'tenodesis grasp'.  The video specifies the need for an OT to strengthen the wrist for better use of the hand and a need for an OT to fit the gauntlet and hand cap.  Is this the future of prosthetics?  The possibilities of 3D printing are limitless when being used to make not only prosthetic hands but various adaptive equipment solutions for all populations.

Great video Kellie!

This website from the American College of Rheumatology provides fast facts re: appropriate exercises for those who suffer from arthritis. What exercises are helpful and safe, who should exercise and which exercises are best, when to exercise and how to get started. Good info to know and share with potential clients in the future

I am sharing this article as a reminder of how important bone health is. This article shares information about how much calcium adults and children need and the importance of calcium and other vitamins and minerals for healthy bones. Eating healthy and exercise is essential in promoting healthy bones. We as COTA's will be treating clients of all ages and I feel it is necessary for us to understnd and educate when we can on bone health. Understanding a lifestyle of eating healthy and knowing what damages our bones is important. Education and being proactive on bone health may prevent us and our clients from distress in our future.

Although we discussed work space ergonomics, I came across this tip sheet for carrying a purse/backpack. These tips are not only useful for us as students, but are also good strategies to recommend to our future clients.

Sex is a taboo subject for some people, but as future OTA's we need learn how to be able to answer questions about sex. If as a therapist we are uncomfortable discussing sex, we aren't establishing a very good therapeutic use of self if we can not effectively communicate with the client their concerns regarding sex.

This is an article on AOTA website that talks about how important addressing sexuality in the OT field is and the interventions we might take to address sexuality with our clients. Always helpful to have these facts and examples on hand for our future.

Sexuality is a core characteristic and formative factor for human beings. It is a state of mind, representing our feelings about ourselves, what it's like to be male or female, how we relate to people of our own gender and those of the opposite gender, how we establish relationships, and how we express ourselves. This article from AOTA was helpful for me when we were going over sexuality in class. It mentions some specific areas OT can address.

I'm sure some of us remember hearing the story on Zion Harvey this summer. This brave little boy underwent a bilateral hand transplant after losing both of his hands, and feet when we was younger. I remember hearing on the news that "he would have several hours of therapy a day" after the successful surgery. I found it encouraging that this article addressed that he had occupational therapy everyday. As future OTs/OTAs we know that occupational therapy will help him work towards his goal of playing on the monkey bars, and help him with his other ADLs. I hope we all have patients this positive in the future :)

I hope I'm not the only one freaking out about job hunting in the future. I found this article that will help prepare us for job interviews with some sample questions. It is always good to be prepared.

This post comes from the same OT based blog from my last diigo posting, but with all of this resume/cover letter/job talk and coming up in the very near future, I wanted to share this post as well! It is very helpful. It goes into types of questions we may encounter in a job interview and how you should go about answering them! Very helpful info to add to our portfolio of info!

A really good site alot about different types burns also first aid treatment do's and don't's, some pics of 2 nd, 3 rd and radiation burns, everything from meds to coping strateges. Prevention By: Mayo Clinic staff To reduce your risk of common household burns: This would be a good check list that maybe we as OT might want to use for a future reference.

great utube video about 4 mins. long has some great ideas about aging in place that we as OT could suggest to future patients...

This information is not only important for us as future practitioners, but also useful for those in our personal lives that may be living with arthritis. This is also beneficial for those with conditions where energy conservation is essential to one's well-being and quality of life.

Assistive technology of the future

I found this article to be interesting because we are told that Therapeutic Activities is more relevant than Therapeutic Exercise and this article was about a study that showed this to be true. Although this article speaks about PT performing the test i feel it was great to read about the study being performed. Shows really what how important keeping this in mind as we enter the world of Future OTA's. The study was done on 20 patient receiving Therapeutic Exercise after a hand injury and 16 receiving therapy sessions using Therapeutic Activities that mimic ADL's after hand injury. After 3 weeks and 5 days the study showed that the Therapeutic Activities mimicing the ADL's seem to be more beneficial.

EnableMart is your #1 source of Assistive Technology products. We are a world leader in assistive technology for those with blindness, low vision, hearing loss, learning disorders and other disabilities. EnableMart has been supporting the special needs community for more than a decade by providing all the most demanded learning curriculums, augmentative devices, large key and large print keyboards, Braille displays, alternative input devices, switches and amplified phones.

I thought this was a neat website. Kinda like a "Wal-Mart" for assistive technology. I think it's really important to know what is out there and how expensive things are so we can recommend to our future clients things that could help them.

Who would have thought a National Council on Aging! There are all kinds of resource linked to this sight. I can see how this could be a great resource for those who are aging or caring for those who are. If you scroll down to the section on "I want to stay healthy" you can click on a list of ways to "restart living." This section helps those who may need to re-evaluate their life and provides direction to encourage them to recognize that they still have something to live for

This is a great site for the older adult or caregiver to find numerous resources. From money management, transportation, job searches, fall preventions and much more. I know I will refer to it in my future practices and thought I would share.

This article is short, but provides definition for Assistive Technology and the different devices that could be used. Just thought this would be helpful to refer to because there are different levels from low levels to high levels.

I like this….makes a good cheat sheet…will be saving for future reference.