Internship
About the Internship
This internship site focuses on regenerative medicine in the field of physical therapy. Current projects are looking at the impacts of soft tissue manipulation on muscle development after injury to make those techniques more effective in the future. Soft tissue manipulation is a manual therapy technique that can include massage using hands or devices. My lab developed two devices that help track the exact techniques being used by the physical therapists. I have been working on analyzing graphs and videos from other physical therapists who are using these techniques in order to establish a strict criteria for training. A strict training protocol would help eliminate some of the variations in the way clinicians perform these strokes, helping to improve the efficacy of this type of treatment.
Linear Stroke Pattern
This stroke involves moving the device in a straight line, presenting a force graph similar to this with very even peaks.
Curved Stroke Pattern
This stroke involves making a C-shaped motion with the device and using some torque. This will present a graph similar to this with choppy peaks and an S-shape force line in either the green or red lines.
Workplace
My current strengths as a team member are being organized and reliable. I am also a very hard worker and am willing to help out wherever needed. I hope to continue to build on these strengths during my time in LHSI. One area I would like to grow in is communication. I already have a strong foundation in this area in terms of communicating with my peers, but I would like to grow in the aspect of communicating with people in professional settings. I would also like to grow in my confidence, especially with being able to accurately discuss my research to groups of people. I tend to get nervous when presenting, but that is something I will have to do in my future career, so building on my confidence now will be helpful.