Philadelphia, PA

PROGRAM: Biomechanics and Movement Science

Attending the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) INSPIRE 2025 Annual Conference in Philadelphia, PA was an extremely rewarding and exciting experience. The conference was a wonderful opportunity to network with my occupational therapy colleagues, which is important at my current career stage as I am graduate candidate who is an occupational therapist without an occupational therapy program at the University of Delaware.

The work I presented focused on the second aim of my dissertation that combines clinical and robotic testing in a robotic exoskeleton to understand how proprioceptive deficits affect bilateral arm capacity after stroke. By leveraging the use of robotics, we can sensitively test for upper limb proprioception after stroke that can identify those with and without proprioceptive deficits. We found that individuals post-stroke with proprioceptive deficits have reduced bilateral arm capacity on a clinical assessment and robotic testing. A key takeaway for occupational therapy practitioners is that proprioceptive deficits may impact bilateral arm capacity after stroke, and capturing upper limb proprioceptive deficits is an important aspect of clinical care as a contributor of overall arm function after stroke.

Other than presenting my work, I valued attending numerous workshops and short courses including how to complete high intensity training that supports occupational therapy principles and goals that benefits individuals with neurological disease. Additionally, I attended sessions on using artificial intelligence in occupational therapy education that is an important current consideration for educators.

Overall, attending the AOTA INSPIRE 2025 annual conference provided both a great learning experience and networking event that was instrumental to my growth as a graduate student and future clinician scientist.