{"id":66666,"date":"2019-12-18T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-18T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2022\/08\/22\/dr-willett-selected-to-participate-in-apta-research-summit\/"},"modified":"2022-09-02T17:33:50","modified_gmt":"2022-09-02T22:33:50","slug":"dr-willett-selected-to-participate-in-apta-research-summit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2019\/12\/18\/dr-willett-selected-to-participate-in-apta-research-summit\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Willett selected to participate in APTA research summit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sandra Willett, Ph.D., director of the MMI Department of Physical Therapy, was one of 11 professionals nationwide who were competitively selected to be part of national research summit hosted in October by the American Physical Therapy Association.<\/p>\n

Ten more physical therapists were selected because of their areas of expertise for the APTA Academy of Pediatric Therapy Research Summit V, which was held in Alexandria, Virginia, on Oct. 18-20. The summit focused on the topic of “Optimizing Transitions from Infancy to Young Adulthood in Children with Neuromotor Disabilities.”<\/p>\n

Conference attendees included not only researchers but funders, such as the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Education, giving investigators an insight into funding priorities, Dr. Willett said.<\/p>\n

The goal of the summit, Dr. Willett said, is to generate ideas, identify gaps, and assemble research team that might compete for federal grant funding.<\/p>\n

“As a group, we worked to establish four top priorities that addressed two primary questions; “If this (transition issue) could be solved, what would be different for children\/families? Do we have all the critical stakeholders present to address this problem or gap?” Dr. Willett said. Those present then aligned their expertise with established priorities to develop planning grants for submission to the APTA. Broadly, the four priorities included:<\/p>\n