Measuring Function After Spinal Cord Injury: The SCI-FI

In this episode, we discuss the development and use of a tool that measures function after spinal cord injury: the Spinal Cord Injury Functional Index (SCI-FI) / Assistive Technology (AT).

Episode Guests:

David Estrada, JD, represents United Spinal Association as a peer mentor, board member, and former executive director of its Greater Boston chapter as well as a national chapter liaison. He is a program manager at the Spaulding New England Regional Spinal Cord Injury Model System and the Exercise for Persons with Disabilities Program. Living with a spinal cord injury and wheelchair user for the past 27 years, he has focused on consumer-led advocacy locally and nationally to promote high quality services for better healthcare management and access to resources for the SCI community. For nearly a decade, Dave was an Athletes with Disabilities Coordinator for the Boston Marathon and continues to promote adaptive sports participation.

Alan Jette, PT, PhD, MPH, FAPTA currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of the journal PTJ and is Professor & Dean emeritus at Boston University. His scholarship focuses on evaluation of rehabilitation outcomes, the measurement of function, and the prevention and treatment of disability. He served as Dean of Boston University’s Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences from 1996-2004, was Professor of Health Policy & Management at the Boston University School of Public Health from 2005-2017, and Professor of Rehabilitation Sciences at the MGH Institute of Health Professions from 2012 to 2021. In 2013, Dr. Jette was elected to the National Academy of Medicine, formerly the Institute of Medicine.

Sarah Skeels, BS, MPH has a B.S. in Exercise Physiology from the University of Virginia where she focused in adaptive exercise, and a Master’s Degree in Public Health from George Washington University, where she focused on Health Promotion and Disability. Sarah is a consultant on numerous research projects that involve people with SCI, a member of the Community Advisory Board with the Spaulding New England Regional Spinal Cord Injury Center; Lecturer in the Department of Occupational Therapy at Tufts University; and Senior Teaching Associate in Behavioral and Social Sciences in the School of Public Health and Brown University. Sarah serves on numerous boards of non-profit adaptive sports organizations and is a Commissioner on the RI Governor’s Commission for People with Disabilities. Sarah is a person with an SCI as a result of a bicycle accident 33 years ago, and is an adaptive snowsports instructor, a former Paralympic-level sailor, an avid outdoorswoman and most importantly, a mom.

Episode Resources:

Episode Articles & Related Research

• Development and initial evaluation of the SCI-FI/AT
• Overview of the Spinal Cord Injury-Functional Index (SCI-FI): Structure and Recent Advances - Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

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