Emily Allan
Position Occupational Therapist, Queensland Spinal Cord Injuries Service (QSCIS)
Contact: Spinal Outreach Team (SPOT) 3rd Floor, Buranda Village, Ipswich Rd Wooloongabba, 4102
Professional Biography
Emily has been an Occupational Therapist for 22 years and worked in the Queensland Spinal Cord Injuries Service (QSCIS) for 16 years, including the inpatient unit, Transitional Rehabilitation Program and Spinal Outreach Team.
Recently she has been involved in the pilot data analysis of the new arm of QSCIS called QuickStart, which offers in-reach model of support to clinicians working with patients awaiting admission to the spinal injuries unit. This has afforded her the opportunity to be involved in the data analysis of the inward referral pathways to QSCIS for people with new spinal cord injuries. This has highlighted the opportunity to improve the visualisation and communication of actionable data for clinical decision making.
Her current role with the Spinal Outreach Team (SPOT), Queensland Spinal Cord Injuries Service involves delivery of specialist-level knowledge, expertise and skills to clients with SCI. The team offers evidence-based education and support to health professionals across QLD working with clients with SCI.
Emily's other current clinical interests include improving the accessibility of online educational resources that support clinicians working in non-SCI specialist areas to provide best practice intervention for people with SCI. She has also worked as a Rehabilitation Case Manager and OT in the field of neuro-rehabilitation, in the United Kingdom.
Research Expertise
Emily has been part of a qualitative research project examining the use and abandonment of environmental control systems (ECS) by people with SCI and published two articles on the topic. Through a Hopkins Centre Fellowship, she is currently investigating the most effective method to communicate data for clinical decision making in spinal cord injury (SCI) rehabilitation. Emily and the team will be exploring the utility of data dashboards.
Research area of interest
Emily is interested investigating how clinicians and managers can be supported to be aware of how data can be used to inform decisions. She is interested exploring the best way to communicate data to clinicians and mangers in rehabilitation settings, as well as in the effective use of data visualisations, storytelling and technology to achieve this.
