Rosalie Wang
Assistant Professor
Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy (University of Toronto)
Affiliate Scientist
Toronto Rehabilitation Institute
(416) 946-8573
Biography
Rosalie’s research interests include assistive technologies to enhance function and quality of life of older adults, strategies to improve quality of life for long-term care home residents with dementia, the application of robotics and artificial intelligence in rehabilitation for people with neurological conditions, knowledge translation (clinical implementation and commercialization) of rehabilitation technologies, mixed methods (combined qualitative and quantitative) research approaches and user-centred design.
Rosalie trained as an Occupational Therapist at the University of British Columbia and has worked as a therapist in Canada and England. Her work experiences span the continuum of care for older adults, including long-term institutional, sub-acute/rehab, acute and community care settings. She has also worked in a seating and wheeled mobility specialist unit and a stroke rehabilitation unit.
Rosalie completed her Doctoral training through the Graduate Department of Rehabilitation Science in collaboration with the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto. Her Doctoral thesis examined the use of collision-avoidance technology to enable power wheelchair mobility with long-term care home residents with cognitive impairments. Her research included some of the first clinical studies to explore the use of collision-avoidance technology and multimodal user interfaces to assist navigation in this population. Rosalie completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship (funded by CIHR) with IATSL and the AI and Robotics Team at Toronto Rehabilitation Institute.
Projects:
- Developing and clinically evaluating an intelligent haptic robotic system for rehabilitation of the upper limb post stroke
- Development of a posture and upper limb position monitoring tool
- Validation of fatigue detection for an upper limb haptic robotic rehabilitation system for stroke rehabilitation
- Gaming environments for robotic stroke rehabilitation: Design and evaluation from an OT perspective
- A participatory design approach to developing therapist interfaces for a robotic stroke rehabilitation system for upper limb therapy post stroke
- Development of wrist and hand modules for an upper limb stroke rehabilitation system
- Tele-rehabilitation for stroke through intelligent robotic systems
- Participatory research applied to purse design for people with hemiparesis
- Investigating the wheeled mobility of older adults and the application of intelligent power wheelchairs to improve mobility as part of the CanWheel team
- Modular intelligent power wheelchair system to enhance mobility, safety and participation of users
- SWAT: Smart Wheelchairs for Assessment and Training of older adults
- Developing and clinically evaluating personal robots in a robot-smart home platform to support aging-in-place
Selected Publications
Peer Reviewed Publications
Wang, R.H. and Mihailidis, A. (2014, submitted). Assistive robots in enabling occupations with older adults and their caregivers. Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy.
Wang, R.H., Korotchenko, A., Hurd Clarke, L. Mortenson, B., and Mihailidis, A. (2013). Power mobility with collision avoidance for older adults: User, caregiver and therapist perspectives. Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Development, 50 (9).
How T.-V., Wang, R.H., and Mihailidis, A. (2013). Evaluation of an intelligent wheelchair system for older adults with cognitive impairments. Journal of Neuroengineering and Rehabilitation, 10 (90).
Lu, E., Wang, R., Huq, R., Gardner, D., Karam, P., Zabjek, K., Hébert, D., Boger, J. and Mihailidis, A. (2012). Development of a robotic device for upper limb stroke rehabilitation: A user-centered design approach. Paladyn. Journal of Behavioral Robotics, 2(4); 176-184.
Wang, R.H., Gorski, S.M., Holliday, P.J., and Fernie, G.R. (2011). Evaluation of a contact sensor skirt for an anti-collision power wheelchair for older adult nursing home residents with dementia: Safety and mobility. Assistive Technology, 23(3): 117-134.
Wang, R.H., Mihailidis, A., Dutta, T., and Fernie, G.R. (2011). Usability testing of multimodal feedback interface and simulated collision-avoidance power wheelchair for long-term-care home residents with cognitive impairments. Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Development, 48(6): 801-822.
Peer-Reviewed Conference Proceedings
Begum, M., Wang, R.H., Huq, R. and Mihailidis, A. (2012, in review). Performance of daily activities by older adults with dementia: The role of an assistive robot. 2013 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, May 6-10, 2013, Karlsruhe, Germany
Wang, R., Boger, J. and Taati, B. (2012, in press). Creating intelligent rehabilitation technology: An interdisciplinary effort. International Conference on NeuroRehabilitation: Converging Clinical and Engineering Research, Nov. 14-16, Toledo, Spain.
Boger, J., Wang, R. and Taati, B. (2012, in press). Interdisciplinary development of intelligent rehabilitation technologies. International Conference on NeuroRehabilitation: Converging Clinical and Engineering Research, Nov. 14-16, Toledo, Spain.
Taati, B., Wang, R., Huq, R., Snoek, J. and Mihailidis, A. (2012). Vision-based posture assessment to detect and categorize compensation during robotic rehabilitation therapy. The 4th IEEE/RAS-EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics (BioRob 2012), June 24-28, Rome, Italy.
Huq, R., Lu, E., Wang, R., and Mihailidis, A. (2012). Development of a portable robot and graphical user interface for haptic rehabilitation exercise. The 4th IEEE/RAS-EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics (BioRob 2012), June 24-28, Rome, Italy.
Wang, R.H., Kontos, P.C., Carswell, A., Naglie, G., Mihailidis, A., and Fernie, G.R. (2011). Qualitative methods in power wheelchair design for older adults with dementia. Rehabilitation Engineering Society of North America 2011 Conference, June 5-8, Toronto, Canada.
Peer-Reviewed Conference Abstracts
Wang, R.H. and Mihailidis, A. (2012). Robotics for older adults: Rehabilitation applications for body functions and structures, and activities and participation. Canadian Association on Gerontology (CAG) 41st Annual Scientific and Educational Meeting, October 18-20, Vancouver, Canada.
Wang, R.H., Korotchenko, A., Mortenson, B., and Hurd Clarke, L. (2012). Powered mobility with collision avoidance technology for older adults: Perspectives of users, prescribers and caregivers and the implications for design. CanWheel Cross Project Symposium: Understanding and improving power mobility use among older Canadians. Canadian Association on Gerontology (CAG) 41st Annual Scientific and Educational Meeting, October 18-20, Vancouver, Canada.
Wang, R.H., Hebert, D., Huq, R., Lu, E.C. and Mihailidis, A. (2012). Working towards clinical applicability and implementation of a robotic stroke rehabilitation system for the upper limb. 3rd Canadian Stroke Congress, Sep 29-Oct 2, Calgary, Canada.
Invited Conference Proceedings
Durkin, J., Nilsson, L., Nisbet, P., & Wang, R.H. (Team Leader) (2010). Best Practice Topics: Empowering children and adults with cognitive disabilities to learn skills for powered mobility: Principles, evidence, and recommendations. 4th International Interdisciplinary Conference on Posture and Wheeled Mobility, June 7-9, Glasgow, Scotland.
