Rachael Akay

About

My long-term research interest is in advancing the use of innovative methods for remote assessment of functional capacity in aging individuals with mobility limitations. For individuals with mobility issues, it is important that functional assessments be conducted in an accessible setting which necessitates exploration of assessments conducted via telehealth. I am excited about my initial line of research in my PhD training looking specifically at individuals with lower limb amputation. As a physical therapist performing return-to-work assessments of injured workers, I saw firsthand the need for objective functional capacity assessments that are specific to and relevant for the individual needs of the patient. My interest in functional movement research using cutting-edge technology began during my time as a physical therapy student in The Center for Gait and Movement Analysis at Children’s Hospital Colorado where I collected and interpreted quantitative motion data for patients with movement disorders such as cerebral palsy. During my clinical practice, my interest in measuring and assessing context specific function became most apparent during my work with individuals injured on the job. With the goal of returning to work while preventing reinjury, I conducted functional capacity examinations based on the physical demands specific to the individual’s employment position. Assessment of an individual’s workplace capacity in ways that closely replicated the workplace setting led to more robust data for return-to-work decisions made by the entire team including the patient, employer, and health care providers. My current research training with the Interdisciplinary Movement Science Team centers on the use of wearable activity monitors to assess physical activity in a fully remote setting. I am currently looking at the feasibility of using Inertial Measurement Units (IMU) to gather more objective data during home testing of functional capacity using tests developed primarily for clinical use. As many healthcare associations have prioritized equitable implementation of telehealth services, there is an urgent need to develop functional outcome measures that are objective, safe, and useful for in-home assessments for individuals with mobility restrictions. The lack of research looking at the clinimetric properties of various commonly used outcome measures within the amputee population needs to be addressed. My work looking at the usability of remote functional testing using IMUs will set the stage for the progression of my research career into future work examining the usefulness of such data in the assessment of fall risk in aging adults with lower limb amputation.

Education

Publications