University of Alberta Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine


The University of Alberta Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, is home to North America's only free-standing faculty of rehabilitation medicine and is composed of three departments, 11 research groups, six student clinics and programs and five institutes and centres. It provides academic training in rehabilitation science, physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech-language pathology.
The Faculty is currently headquartered in the historic Corbett Hall at the University of Alberta’s main campus and houses three departments: Department of Physical Therapy, Department of Occupational Therapy and Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders.
Current noteworthy research being conducted within the Faculty includes musculoskeletal health, neuroscience, children’s health, aging, military health and rehabilitation technology.

History

The Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine began as a training program for physical therapists in Alberta in 1954. Programs in occupational therapy and speech-language pathology were introduced later, in 1960 and 1969 respectively.
In 1964 it became the School of Rehabilitation Medicine. In March 1976 it was granted Faculty status. In 1969 it offered the first rehabilitation medicine degree: a Bachelor of Physical Therapy. The Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine became the first institution in Canada to offer a graduate degree in physical therapy in 1979. In 2014 the Department of Occupational Therapy launched the first MScOT satellite program in Canada. The list of leaders of the rehabilitation professions that have come from the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine includes the President of the World Federation of Occupational Therapy, the President of the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapy, the President of the Canadian Physical Therapy Association,

Education

The Faculty currently offers five degree programs:
A range of continuing professional education programs for working clinicians are also offered.

Campuses

Campuses include the University of Alberta’s Main Campus, Augustana Campus and the Calgary Campus.
Through these campuses and a distributed education learning model, the Faculty is able to increase accessibility to education across the province.
Classes are delivered either face-to-face or by real-time web/video cast technology to view professors from other campuses. While the majority of classes are broadcast from Edmonton, faculty broadcast from all campuses throughout the program.
The Occupational Therapy program first self-funded a pilot program for 12 students in Calgary to address the need for engagement of preceptors and practitioners in Southern Alberta, and to meet occupational therapy needs in surrounding rural areas. After two cohorts, the program received permanent funding from the government and was relocated to the same building as the PT program. The OT program in Calgary now takes in 25 students each year.

Institutes and clinics

Institutes and centres

The Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine is home to the Canada Research Chair in Spinal Cord Injury, as well as the Associate Research Chair in Clinical Rehabilitation, Chair in Military and Veterans’ Clinical Rehabilitation, Research Chair in Stuttering, and David Magee Endowed Chair in Musculoskeletal Clinical Research.
There are 11 research groups in total:
Other areas of research include: