Hither and thither: How do we innovate?

Abstract

The Dembo-Wright Lecture provided a forum to discuss how innovation occurs in general and in rehabilitation psychology. The 21st Century will rely upon the creation and enhancement of knowledge. Universities, industries and professional disciplines are challenged to develop models that nurture their development of knowledge jobs that create new systems or products. A new model of nurturing innovation: The Rainforest, relies upon creating ecosystems that bring together and support the critical groups allowing instances that propel spontaneous growth of sustainable enterprises. Over the last 3 decades, rehabilitation psychology has seen disruptive-yet productive-innovation when thought leaders in the field have introduced ideas that move the discipline to entirely new areas of discussion. For rehabilitation psychology, consideration of new models of practice that address the huge needs of the developing world are warranted. The complexity of nurturing innovation in differing environments must be addressed. Progress to date indicates that understanding and defining the interface between machines and humans will be critical to the future of rehabilitation psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record

Factors Associated with Activities of Daily Life Disability among Centenarians in Rural Chongqing, China: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…It was known that physical activity benefits the physical health and functionality of elders. As a recent article reports, the elevated level of physical activity among Sardinian centenarians was associated with high ADL scores [ 40 ]. Our findings were in accordance with previous centenarian studies in Japan and South Korea, which found that centenarians who lacked physical activity had poor ADL capability [ 12 , 13 ].…”

Afterword.

“…For rehabilitation psychologists, the future requires dedicated sensitivity to pursuing, and understanding, the evolution of the delivery of health services. Too often, psychologists have chased the expiring model of health care, only to be marginally prepared for the evolved replacement to the previous model (see Frank, 2017, for more detail). In 2015, Kassler, Tomoyasu, and Conway (2015) noted that improving health requires adoption of population health models that focus on the health of all people in a given geographic area.…”

Health policy implications for rehabilitation psychology.

“…These advances may bring efficiencies to health care that were not possible previously because of a reliance upon expensive labor. These changes will also modify rehabilitation as smart machines are integrated into the human body and robots provide routine care activities (Frank, 2017). (Refer to Chapters 30 and 31 and the Afterword, this handbook, for additional discussion of future changes in care secondary to technological advances.…”