The DEx Lite was a research project completed in our second year of the OTD program. The purpose of this project was to prepare us for the implementation of our DEx projects. During the DEx Lite, DEx groups carried out a research project of their choosing. DEx groups had to submit proposals explaining their research projects, apply to the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at Western New England University, and submit assignments relating to the write-up of their respected research findings. The end product was a final poster presentation of our research topics and results.

For our DEx Lite project, my research team and I decided to pilot a survey studying the effects of work-related pain in therapists utilizing manual techniques in an outpatient rehab setting. After careful consideration, we elected to have our DEx Lite topic and survey be in close relation to our DEx topic to help with the development and implementation of our DEx community experiential and scholarly components. By piloting our survey for the DEx Lite, it gave us critical information about our target population that was used to better develop our projects. In addition, it also allowed us to make necessary edits to the survey, gather a larger sample size in order to collect more data, and submit a journal article on our study to highlight the importance of our research topic and expand our community outreach. The DEx Lite was approved by Western New England's IRB and informed consent was gathered by all research participants.

Within this section of my ePortfolio, you will find the products of the DEx Lite project. It is important to note that these documents and other products were completed prior to and during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, which did have an impact on the implementation of this project.