Kinect’ing with Clinicians Developers

Sujata Pradhan

Sujata Pradhan, PT, PhD, is a physical therapist by training and currently employed as an Assistant Professor at the University of Washington, Seattle – Department of Rehabilitation Medicine (Division of Physical Therapy). The overall goal of her research is to apply advances in technology to rehabilitation. Her research has included development of objective measures to monitor subtle changes in severity of the disease as well as monitor effects of therapy (medication as well as exercise) on disease progression in Parkinson’s disease (PD), the use of active gaming to utilize enriched environments for rehabilitation in PD and the use of wearable sensors to study physical activity in individuals with PD. For more information about her work, please visit:

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Debbie Espy

Debbie Espy is an Assistant Professor in the Physical Therapy Program at Cleveland State University. She received her MSPT from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1992 and her PhD in Human Movement Science from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2010. She teaches courses in Professional Issues, Functional Anatomy, Adult Neurological Dysfunction, and Neuro-motor Interventions. Her research interests are in the areas of motor learning, postural control and falls, and off-the-shelf technology for rehab and health. Her current lines of research are in the use of video gaming as a therapeutic exercise adjunct and as a balance training modality; in novel uses of sensor technology in therapeutic exercise; in balance training for fall prevention, and in optimizing motor learning for therapeutic exercise. She has published on topics of fall biomechanics and fall resistance training, novel use of sensor technologies for motor learning and therapeutic exercise, and the use of video gaming as a therapeutic tool.

Danielle Levac

Dr. Levac’s is an assistant professor in the Department of Physical Therapy, Movement and Rehabilitation Sciences at Northeastern University. She directs the Rehabilitation Games and Virtual Reality (ReGame-VR) lab. Dr. Levac’s research program has two goals: 1) to evaluate the use of home and clinic-based virtual reality (VR) and gaming systems to promote motor learning in pediatric and adult neurological populations and 2) to explore ways to sustainably integrate VR and gaming systems into rehabilitation. Dr. Levac is interested in determining the practice conditions that best lead to retention, transfer and generalization of learning when off-the-shelf gaming systems and rehabilitation-specific VR technology are used in a variety of rehabilitation settings.

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Judith Deutsch

Judith Deutsch PT PhD FAPTA is professor and director of the Rivers lab in the Department of Rehabilitation and Movement Sciences at the School of Health Professions at Rutgers University.

She develops and tests evidence-based virtual environments and serious games for rehabilitation of balance mobility and fitness. She collaborates with national and international colleagues in technology transfer and knowledge translation initiative connected to her areas of research.

She serves on the Editorial Boards of JNER and Games for Health. Her work is supported by NSF, NIH, AHA and Science Center QED. Website: http://shp.rutgers.edu/dept/PT/rivers/

Judith Deutsch

Emily J. Fox, PT, DPT, PhD, NCS is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at the University of Florida and a Clinical Research Scientist at Brooks Rehabilitation. She a board certified specialist in neurologic physical therapy is the Director of the Brooks Motion Analysis Center. Her work focuses on neuromuscular control and development of innovative strategies to promote motor recovery following neurologic injury.