Why multidisciplinary clinical research?
It is our collective belief that to effectively answer research questions related to the rehabilitation sciences, we must bring together researchers whose expertise reflects many disciplines. Researchers solely from occupational or physical therapy disciplines are not sufficient to examine complex research questions. For example, to understand the extent and consequences of low back pain, the perspectives of interventionists such as rehabilitation professionals as well as the views of physiatrists, psychologists, psychiatrists, biomechanists, biostatisticians, health policy people, ethicists, and others is critical to fostering success in the rehabilitation scholar. This crosscutting, multidisciplinary approach to research is especially important now, in this age of rapid scientific discovery.
