RERCWTS.org: Knowledge Translation through the State of Science Conference

The State of the Science (SoS) Conference is a requirement for all Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers (RERCs) They occur in the third year of the 5-year RERC funding cycle. The intent of an SoS conference on wheelchair transportation safety is to pull in broad expertise on the topic and use systematic processes to establish the current state of the science. This naturally leads to laying out the next steps for research and development and developing strategies for using findings to influence public policy and regulation. The State of the Science for this currently funded RERC will occur in 2009.

The SoS for the previous RERC on Wheelchair Transportation Safety, however, occurred in January of 2005. It established the foundation on which this RERC proposal was developed. All of the work from this previous SoS is available for review and use by the engineers, scholars, policy makers and researchers who are interested.

Overview: The Purpose of a State of the Science Meeting

The State of the Science activity responds to NIDRR's general requirement to “conduct in the third year of the grant a state-of-the-science conference on wheelchair transportation and publish a comprehensive report on the final outcomes of the conference in the fourth year of the grant.”

Purpose

To share and consolidate current research developments on wheelchair transportation technology,
To identify deficiencies in the successful use of current wheelchair transportation products and systems,
To identify and prioritize future research needs, and
To disseminate the workshop outcomes.

Scope

To address wheelchair transportation safety technology, including wheelchair structures, electromechanical systems, wheelchair seating, wheelchair securement, transport vehicles and systems and transportation safety standards,
To explore current manufacturing, distribution, and primary usage issues that may impact on the successful access and independent use of wheelchair transportation technology and systems.

Participants

A cross-section of researchers, clinicians, primary users, designers, manufacturers, transporters, transit authority representatives, and government personnel will be invited to participate in the workshop.

Deliverables

It is envisioned that the outcome of the workshop will be a document highlighting the workshop “white” papers and findings, including recommendations for future research and development. The document is disseminated using traditional means, as well as this RERC web page.

Overview: The State of the Science of Wheelchair Transportation Safety

The SOS workshop was held on January 17-18, 2005 in Orlando FL. It was held in conjunction with the International Seating Symposium (ISS), also hosted by the University of Pittsburgh. Four themes were used to focus the discussion on the objectives and formulate consensus recommendations within a two-day workshop forum. Prior to the workshop designated theme leaders prepared 3-5 page "state of the science/practice" white papers for distribution to the participants prior to the meeting. 50-60 participants, distributed across target population, were invited on the basis of the expertise or experience they could bring to the discussions. An attempt was made to select persons that could represent the key stake-holders within the target population. In total, 35 invitees representing 13 stake-holder groups attended the two-day event, plus 13 RERC-related personnel.

The State-of-The-Science had 4 workshop themes:

Barriers to the development, marketing, purchase and use of transit-safe technology
Development, testing and application of wheelchair seating systems for use in transportation
Towards the next generation of securement and occupant restraint systems for use in public and private vehicles
From today to 2010: How do we get there from here?

Workshop Format:

Time-limited, theme-based break-out sessions were conducted in parallel, led by a session moderator. The session participants were requested to address 3-4 pre-selected questions. A modified Nominal Group Technique (NGT) process was used to build and record group consensus in each of the break-out sessions (Delbecq, Van de Ven & Gustafson, 1971). The small-group consensus statements were then presented to the plenary group for further priority ranking. This process ultimately led to 3-4 prioritized statements regarding future needs and goals for each of the four targeted themes

Dissemination:

A hard-copy summary document containing the prioritized summary statements has been completed. It will be distributed to select stake-holder groups within the target population, such as NIDRR, NIH, VA, FTA, the Access Board, the workshop participants and the RERC Advisory Board. The report is now available to any interested party as a PDF document on this website. A journal publication is planned in order publish the key outcomes of the workshop. RERC personal (and interested others) will seek opportunities to present the findings at appropriate user, research and service provider forums.

State of the Science

The State of the Science Conference for the RERC on Wheelchair Transportation Safety