ვიზიტი ემორის (აშშ) უნივერსიტეტში

Visit in Emory University

From February 25 to March 1, 2019, Ketevan Simsivadze, a student of MA’s program - "Rehabilitation in Sport" and Physical Therapist at Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Clinical Center of Tbilisi State Medical University visited  Emory University School of Medicine (Atlanta, USA).  The visit was implemented in the frame of study tour - "Physical Rehabilitation Project in Georgia" funded by USIAD. The study tour included observing academic process Physical Therapy Program  (Lectures, practical and laboratory sessions, continuous professional development of clinical instructors, and clinical education of resident-physiotherapists in neurorehabilitation) at Emory University Medical School, observing patients and discussing clinical cases, use of modern methods and technologies of physical therapy implemented in United States and obtaining direct experience in different areas of physical rehabilitation, (Neurorehabilitation, rehabilitation in traumatology-orthopedics and sports medicine, cardiorespiratory rehabilitation), getting acquainted with  ambulatory and hospital rehabilitation services at Emory University Clinics. In this intensive and very important study program were participating the students of Master Program "Rehabilitation in Sports" of  Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation of TSMU Ketevan Sivsivadze and Leila Chantladze, who will be involved in the study process of  clinical skills in some disciplines of BA’s program, as clinical instructors. Also, the most important part of the visit was devoted to review and discussion of curriculum of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation of TSMU, with Professor of Rehabilitation department, Marie Iohansson, who also leads the Physical Therapy Program at Emory University School of Medicine. The work and development of the curriculum is ongoing since the beginning of the project and nowadays many recommendations of Professor Mary Iohansson was taken into account. A special attention was paid to observing an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE), as piloting  of OSCE on Bachelor's Degree Program of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, with a close cooperation with the Faculty Quality Assurance service, was launched a few weeks ago, in particular on January 18, 2019, in frame of one discipline (clinical and functional assessment in physical medicine). At the same time, during the visit, the plans for future development of partnership between Emory University Medical School and Faculty of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation of TSMU was set out (academic process, clinical skills training, short courses of professional development, etc.) as well as the activities that should be implemented in the frame of  "Physical Rehabilitation Project in Georgia" of USAID (implementation of standards of documenting of patients data in physical rehabilitation, development of standards, planning of continuous professional development courses). During the visit, a number of fruitful meetings were held with Mr. Archil Undilashvili, Professor of Educational Programs of Emory University School of Medicine and Professor Gordon Churchward.