It is an honor to hold the inaugural Research Chair position for the Federal Section. Being a Research PT and Research Health Scientist for nearly 20 years in the VA and being able to collaborate with amazing Clinician Scientists in the VA and DoD to develop innovative rehabilitation protocols and new outcome measures for our Service Members, Veterans, and civilians with and without lower limb loss has been a true privilege.

My overall goal as the Research Chair is to:

1. Highlight the great research by our Clinician Scientists at VA and DoD facilities,

2. Foster collaborations amongst each other,

3. Provide a knowledge-based resource for Federal PT researchers.

In the first half of 2024, we began to tackle goal #3. We developed a streamlined approach for reviewing research studies from Federal PT researcher that request to utilize the federal section list serve to promote their study and/or help with recruitment. The process ensures that these studies have received Institutional Review Board approval to promote and/recruit from the Federal Section.

If you would like to utilize the Federal Section list serve to promote and/or help with study recruitment, please reach out to me at igaunaurd@ med.miami.edu. For the next 1.5 years, we will work to accomplishing two important tasks:

1. Collaborate with a peer-reviewed journal to publish the excellent APTA CSM Federal Section abstracts that are presented either as platforms or posters. Ideally, our goal is to generate an online addendum that is cited and can be used by our community to support grants submissions and/or promotions.

2. Generate a quarterly social media post that highlights the great research that one of our Federal PT Clinician Scientists is doing in their respective VAs, MTFs, and/or Military Bases.

Lastly, the deadline for APTA CSM 2025 abstracts for platform and poster presentations is July 16th. So, make sure to get those abstracts in early so you can have the opportunity to share your great research results.