OT Month: celebrate clinical research

Upon graduating from UBC’s occupational therapy program, John thought research was something that other OTs would do… instead, he was keen to practice hands-on skills and found an exciting match working with clients with acute spinal cord injury (SCI). Flash forward twenty-two years – John continues to work with this population but he has become one of those ‘other’ OTs after all.

John Cobb, Occupational Therapist and Researcher

Through partnerships with Vancouver’s Rick Hansen Institute and researchers in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec, John has lead-authored two and co-authored three published journal articles, and has presented his work at local, national and international conferences. Major projects include: development of a SCI registry data set and survey that describes the status of community-dwelling Canadians living with SCI, and development of a cross-Canada survey designed to determine if community integration needs of people with SCI are met or unmet. This year he and his research partners published the evaluation results of a pilot pressure ulcer prevention initiative for patients with traumatic SCI admitted to an acute care setting, and an exploratory analysis of the potential association between SCI-secondary health conditions and daily activities for Canadians living in the community.

When asked why he ventured into research after all, he responded, “When you have worked in an area for as long as I have, I just think that you should have something important to say.” For clients living with spinal cord injury and for the profession of occupational therapy, we are so glad that he found his voice.