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Wed 22 Feb 2023 9:11PM

2023 AOTA (American Occupational Therapy Association) Conference in KC

AJ Adam Jennings Public Seen by 103

Update:

Thank you all for your feedback! Given the short turnaround and the planning required (as well as the cost of creating signage, etc.), I've decided to table the notion of booth attendance this year. Instead, I will attend the spring 2023 AOTA conference individually with the goal of walking the exhibition floor to network (and get my steps in for the month). I am hugely optimistic that this will yield opportunities for us to connect - and potentially collaborate - with healthcare providers and health IT firms all across the states.

Longer term, I would like to explore the possibility of establishing an outreach fund that would facilitate an eNABLE presence at this and similar national events, as well as empower our global chapters to elevate eNABLE's presence in their own regions. As I stated in the comments above, I believe this is the most effective path forward to form effective partnerships, draw clinicians into the fold, and increase our impact.

Description of Proposed Project:

Adam Jennings (outreach coordinator) and 1-2 other eNABLE members to attend the 2023 AOTA (American Occupational Therapy Association) Conference in Kansas City from April 20-23. We will reserve an exhibition booth to showcase our work and make connections with people and organizations who may have a direct impact on our efforts globally and in the US.

Expected results/impact:

Elevated visibility of eNABLE at national conference with 7-9000 clinicians, researchers, and healthcare tech companies.

Estimate of work effort involved:

Coordination of community to source images for slideshow presentation, reservation of space (pending payment, but otherwise complete), acquisition of presentation materials (e.g., 3D printer, completed hands and other tech, etc)

Estimated timeline for completion:

Major lift already completed. Remaining work should take no longer than 1 month to pull together. Event takes place in mid April.

Names of individuals responsible for deliverables:

Dr. Adam C. Jennings

Amount of funding being requested:

$1500 (to reserve booth space). I was successful in reserving one of 3 final remaining booth spaces at a discounted price (down from $2600).

Additional funding may be required for materials (e.g., flooring, tables, signage- possibly between $500-$1000)

Further reimbursement for travel and lodging accommodations for any other eNABLE members interested in joining (possibly $500-$1000 per additional member). I believe that Jeremy Simon would be an ideal participant, but I would welcome any member who is willing to donate their time and is 1) comfortable with being "on deck" for up to 10 hours per day, 2) familiar with the 3D printing techniques, materials, and applications used to fabricate devices, and 3) able to speak easily with potentially hundreds of event attendees over the course of the conference.

Total funding request: up to $3000; minimum of $1500

A brief overview of my background with e-NABLE:

I am eNABLE's outreach coordinator. I would like to leverage this and future events to increase our visibility and standing in the healthcare ecosystem.

AJ

Adam Jennings Wed 22 Feb 2023 9:14PM

Note: I live and work in Kansas City, and I recently learned that the AOTA conference would take place here this spring. I would not require any funding personally to attend the event (re: travel, lodging, etc)

CC

Chad Coarsey Wed 22 Feb 2023 10:25PM

Its been a while since i have been involved with eNABLE but your proposal caught my eye. Don't mean to sound like the "second reviewer" but here are a few thoughts:

What is the total money requested? I suggest you estimate a single dollar amount for each of your expenses and provide a total amount.

You should also spell out the acronym of the conference.

Who are the other eNABLE members you are including?

Who is the SME selected to provide "technical explanations"?

From a bigger picture is the audience (OTs) welcoming of eNABLE. I had a cold reception from the AAOP in 2015, are you a member of the AOTA? If not, do you have a member participating?

I think this is framed well, but it's quite a bit of money for eNABLE to spend without too much benefit for the wider community in my opinion.

AJ

Adam Jennings Wed 22 Feb 2023 10:41PM

@Chad Coarsey Thanks for the feedback! I'll edit the original request to address your questions. I had thought that I had defined the AOTA in the original, but I see now that I didn't.

For what it's worth, I am a physical therapist and a member of the APTA (a sister organization to the AOTA). The purpose of our participation here is to bridge the exact gap that you describe, and hopefully benefit the entire eNABLE community. By showcasing our efforts globally, I hope to forge relationships with dozens of healthcare practitioners, researchers, and organizations whose missions may complement our own.

For additional context, in addition to my work as a physical therapist, I have spent the better part of a decade in sales support roles, which included hosting exhibits at this exact venue. I believe there is a tangible ROI here in expanding our presence and increasing our fundraising potential.

JO

Jen Owen Wed 22 Feb 2023 11:27PM

I am excited to see that folks are still trying to get the medical community here in the USA to take 3D printed devices seriously and potentially offer them to their clients/patients but I also feel like the amount of funding requested to network here seems a bit high.

What would the e-NABLE Community get from this that would benefit the whole and not just the US based chapters? And how would this benefit the USA chapters if you participated?

I don't personally feel like the e-NABLE fund should be used to pay for booths at events like this or travel and lodging expenses for folks outside of the area to join and help you run a booth. Are there other local e-NABLE volunteers who may be interested in joining you for the day and volunteering their time to answer questions from medical professionals?

Is there maybe a local university with students who may be interested in e-NABLE that could come help you out there? Or other physical therapists in your area who might be interested in e-NABLE too that could join with you to help pay for the booth and get other physical therapists interested in participating?

I'm not trying to be a downer :) I love that you are excited to get more medical professionals participating but I also feel like the funds in this amount could be used for other things like supplies and materials and machines for e-NABLE chapters working in underserved locations.

AJ

Adam Jennings Wed 22 Feb 2023 11:57PM

Howdy, Jen- I'm happy to finally meet you!

Believe me, increasing our capacity to serve those in areas without ready access to prosthetic services is at the top of my priority list. However, from what I have observed, we have twin issues that severely limit our ability to meet that need:

1) Engagement from members- we don't appear to have a great deal of momentum from the ground up in our community. I would like to bring in more healthcare practitioners to eNABLE who are keenly interested in (and capable of) building our recipient pipeline. A conference with literally thousands of clinicians in attendance seems like the best possible scenario to fill that gap.

2) Visibility outside of the community - when a practitioner has a new case that includes amputation, how and when do they reach out to eNABLE to inquire about our services? How many such requests have we received in total since 2013? I believe that in failing to attend relevant industry events, meeting leaders, and making ourselves known, our ability to direct our enormous community of volunteers to meet the 80-85% of amputees who have insufficient (or no) prosthetic care will never improve.

And you're right: I doubt that there will be a direct and immediate benefit to members outside of the US. However, I firmly believe the relationships formed at this event (and with your support, many others in the years to come) will address both of the twin issues outlined above.

I recognize that the cost isn't insignificant. I also recognize that I won't sway your heart and mind with empty promises of return. However, I can say that I have worked these events extensively in the past, and I'm quite good at this. I am very happy to donate my time to this event with the goal of obtaining tangible contacts, increasing the total number of clinicians in our community, and presenting the results of our investment at the following Friday town hall.

JS

Jon Schull Thu 23 Feb 2023 12:20AM

I support this project.

Funding requests for other purposes would be most welcome. We have the money and the community (as we see here) is responsive and responsible about how it is allocated.

Adam's judgement on this counts a lot with me. He's highly qualified, very canny, very motivated, and he's already proved himself to be a persistent "keeper" in the community. He's a professional, and the first e-NABLE volunteer in years to take a leadership role on systematic outreach to professionals and to potential recipients.

I think this does have a chance of increasing opportunities for e-NABLE volunteers to work on real cases, which is our impact-limiting resource in North America. And if it doesn't we'll probably come away with an updated sense of where we stand with the medical community. In my experience OT is the medical specialty most receptive and aligned with e-NABLE, and are less likely than, say prosthetists, to be conflicted about what we do. I'm eager to see if we can make something work her.

On Wed, 22 Feb 2023 at 18:57, Adam Jennings (via Loomio) wrote:



AJ


Adam Jennings commented in: 2023 AOTA (American Occupational Therapy Association) Conference in KC ( https://www.loomio.com/d/MGZvRgWU/comment/2854394?utm_campaign=new_comment&utm_medium=email )

Howdy, Jen- I'm happy to finally meet you!

Believe me, increasing our capacity to serve those in areas without ready access to prosthetic services is at the top of my priority list. However, from what I have observed, we have twin issues that severely limit our ability to meet that need:

1) Engagement from members- we don't appear to have a great deal of momentum from the ground up in our community. I would like to bring in more healthcare practitioners to the eNABLE who are keenly interested in (and capable of) building our recipient pipeline. A conference with literally thousands of clinicians in attendance seems like the best possible scenario to fill that gap.

2) Visibility outside of the community - when a practitioner has a new case that includes amputation, how and when do they reach out to eNABLE to inquire about our services? How many such requests have we received in total since 2013? I believe that failing to relevant industry events, meeting leaders, and making ourselves known, our ability to direct our enormous community of volunteers to meet the 80-85% of amputees who have insufficient (or no) prosthetic care will never improve.

And you're right: I doubt that there will be a direct an immediate benefit to members outside of the US. However, I firmly believe the relationships formed at this event (and with your support, many others in the years to come) will address both of the twin issues outlined above.

I recognize that the cost isn't insignificant. I also recognize that I won't sway your heart and mind with empty promises of return. However, I can say that I have worked these events extensively in the past, and I'm quite good at this. I am very happy to donate my time to this event with the goal of obtaining tangible contacts, increasing the total number of clinicians in our community, and presenting the results of our investment at the following Friday town hall.

Reply to this email directly or view it on Loomio ( https://www.loomio.com/d/MGZvRgWU/comment/2854394?utm_campaign=new_comment&utm_medium=email ).

Logo

JO

Jen Owen Fri 24 Feb 2023 4:04PM

@Adam Jennings thank you for sharing more about yourself and yes! Happy to meet you! Thank you for being such a big part of e-NABLE. It's been quite an interesting past 10 years.

JS

Jeremy Simon Fri 24 Feb 2023 4:58PM

I don't know of anyone doing more to expand e-NABLE's partnerships and outreach efforts than Adam. The work he's doing goes directly toward solving our greatest challenge right now, which is having a bigger pool of people seeking our help so we can keep our many makers meaningfully engaged. I fully support this.

SD

Sandra Dermisek Sat 25 Feb 2023 7:53AM

I would support this too, but I also do feel it is quite a lot of money. I am struggling with the same issue too for my chapter in the Netherlands. But since I build up a relationship with a university hospital in the North of the Netherlands we are getting more requests from their patients. They now see that what we do has added value for their kid patients. Last fall we were present at an event at that hospital they organized for kids with an upper limb difference and we got a lot of attention from our target group. We met 16 kids with a limb difference in 1 day. In the last 2 years we have already made hands for 3 of them. I am trying to get in contact with more hospitals and other medical professionals, but that is very time consuming.

For a big country as the US such a conference would reach a lot of medical professionals and could have a amazing impact.

I also suspect that if this will get enough positive votes that there are more people from other countries may be trying to request at Loomio some funding.

SM

Skip Meetze Sat 25 Feb 2023 3:24PM

Occupational Therapists (OTs) have been a very important part of the e-NABLE history from very early on. Like much of the medical community, OTs are under utilized in our community. I support Adam's proposal because I think it is a good opportunity to raise the awareness of synergy and partnership potential with us among individuals in the OT community.

I happened to meet a couple of OTs on the occasion that I first became aware of e-NABLE when Jon Schull was putting an RIT Arm on a young man named Derek. David Dietz, one of the OTs spent several hours that weekend explaining his hypothesis that a prosthetic thumb could function quite usefully if it had only one joint. Nate Ramsey, the other OT (a trans-radial amputee himself) also aptly demonstrated how functional a single-jointed prosthetic can be. However, I was not very impressed with the looks of his Hosmer Hook! During the course of the next couple of years, thanks to advice and inspiration from these two practitioners, Jon and I developed the Gripper Thumb Hand and tried it out on an early recipient named Lusie.

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