Page 16 - Mobility Management, August/September 2020

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ISS 2021 & Showing Our Value: An Interview with Mark Schmeler
When Mobility Management went to press in August, it was clear that the COVID-19 pandemic that has upturned 2020 will also impact at least part of 2021.
The University of Pittsburgh Rehabilitation Science & Technology Continuing Education (RSTCE) team, host of the 2021 International Seating Symposium (ISS), now faces event parameters that could change at any time.
Mark Schmeler, Ph.D., OTR/L, ATP, is Vice-Chair for Education & Training in the Department of Rehabilitation Science & Technology and the Director of the 2021 ISS. A conversation about ISS-related topics turned into a wider-ranging talk about CRT’s continuing maturity.
MM: I’m guessing you create a balance when you’re choosing presentations. But how do you decide who speaks when?
Mark Schmeler: We try to have a balance, being respectful that there are new people coming in, and we
want to support them and make sure that their needs are being met. Think of an Introductory class as one for someone with a few years of experience. Intermediate could be for three to seven years of experience, and Advanced is for people who have been everywhere, done everything and know everything.
We’re trying to encourage people to come up with new content. We like when people have some kind of outcome, even if it’s a case example or it’s data. We’re trying to shift our industry away from saying anecdotally, “This is what works” to giving stronger evidence. In our adolescent days, we would say, “We know this works because we said so.” There’s some validity to that, but we also live in a world now of evidence-based practice.
MM: Then you figure out who’s speaking when?
Mark Schmeler: We have all the presentations we want to accept, and then we map it out on the board. As much as possible, we make sure there aren’t two
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