RERC on Telerehabilitation Science State of the Science Conference

November 20, 2008

“Telerehabilitation: Policy Issues and Research Tools” White Paper Authors:

Katherine D. Seelman, PhD is Associate Dean of Disability Programs and Professor of Rehabilitation Science and Technology, University of Pittsburgh. She is one of two from the U.S. serving on the World Health Organization’s nine-member international panel guiding development of the first world report on disability. Dr. Seelman is co-science director of the National Science Foundation-supported Quality of Life Technology engineering research center. She served as the Director of the National Institute on Disability and

Rehabilitation Research under President Clinton. Dr. Seelman is widely published and the recipient of many awards.

Linda M. Hartman, MLS, is a Reference Librarian at the

University of Pittsburgh and the library's liaison to the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. Hartman is working with the Quality of Life Technology (QoLT) Center, a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center (ERC) whose mission is to transform the lives of people with reduced functional capabilities due to aging or disability, to build a knowledge base on quality of life technology information.

Expert Panel Members:

Alexandra Enders, OTR, is a Senior Research Associate/Policy Analyst at the Research and Training Center on Disability in Rural Communities at the University of Montana. Her policy analysis focus is on the infrastructure issues - Transportation and Telecommunications – which determine the availability, accessibility, and usability of the vehicles of modern participation. For more than 30 years, she has been involved

with service delivery systems and networks, public policy, funding and quality assurance issues, program development and training activities, information services, independent living program development, and technology evaluation and effectiveness studies, at the Electronic Industries Foundation in Washington, D.C., the Rehabilitation Engineering Center at Children’s Hospital at Stanford, and the Center for Independent Living in Berkeley, California.

Dena Puskin, ScD, is the Director of the Federal Office for the Advancement of Telehealth in the Health Resources and Services Administration, chairs the federal Joint Working Group on Telemedicine, and is an ATA Board member. In her career, Dr. Puskin has served as the Acting Director and Deputy Director, Federal Office of Rural Health Policy; senior analyst for Congress’s Prospective Payment Assessment Commission (now MedPAC); senior legislative analyst, Blue Cross/Blue Shield Association; Research Director, Finger Lakes Health Systems

Agency; Assistant Professor of Community Medicine, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry; and Adjunct faculty, University of Alabama, Birmingham.

Cynthia D. Waddell, JD is the Executive Director and Law, Policy and Technology Subject Matter Expert of the International Center for Disability Resources on the Internet (ICDRI). By combining her expertise in disability rights law, public policy and technology, Cynthia Waddell provides professional consulting services for government, university and private sector business clients. She also serves as the ICT Accessibility and Government Services Expert for

the United Nations Global Initiative for Inclusive Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) at www.g3ict.com.

Lawrence Wechsler, M.D., professor of neurology and neurological surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, is director of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Stroke Institute and Interim Chair of the Department of Neurology. He also serves as Vice President for Telemedicine in the Physician Services Division and Director of the UPMC Center for Telehealth. Dr. Wechsler’s interests include acute stroke therapy, imaging and telemedicine. He has participated in many clinical trials

of treatments for stroke as an investigator or member of the steering committee. At UPMC, Dr. Wechsler has initiated a telemedicine program including providing stroke services to all hospitals within the UPMC system. He now directs efforts to develop many other telemedicine services and applications.

Peter Thomas, JD has a federal administrative law, legislative, and regulatory practice in the areas of health care and disability policy, Medicare coverage and reimbursement, and medical rehabilitation services, devices and research. Mr. Thomas has been engaged in representation of rehabilitation-related clients since 1991 including the AMRPA (Consumer and Clinical Affairs Task Force), AAPM&R, ACRM, AAP, CARF, and related organizations. Mr. Thomas has served on a number of government advisory boards and commissions involving health care, rehabilitation and disability issues. He has served

as Co-Chair of the Health Task Force of the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (“CCD”) for over fifteen years and heads the Coalition to Preserve Access to Rehabilitation (“CPR”), a coalition of national health care and disability organizations that seek to preserve patient access to inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation services.