Rebecca Ataman, PhD
Rebecca Ataman, MSc, RKin, is a registered kinesiologist (Ontario) and completed a PhD in Rehabilitation Sciences at McGill University. She completed her MSc in Anatomical Sciences at Queen’s University, with a dual focus in anatomical education and knowledge translation in kinesiology. After completing her MSc, she worked at the University of Waterloo, Department of Kinesiology, School of Anatomy, where she taught courses in the anatomical sciences as well as in exercise prescription and management. Her broad research interests lie in health professional education, clinical reasoning and knowledge translation.
Rebecca’s doctoral research aimed to understand how newly implemented evidence-based rehabilitation practices are sustained. New rehabilitation practices are implemented into clinical practice all the time, however only an estimated 40-60% of these practices are continued over the long-term, or sustained. This leads to a huge waste in financial and human resources, and a loss of potential benefits to patient outcomes. Rebecca hopes her research will contribute to the evidence-based on the topic as well as produce practical guidance to optimize the sustainability of rehabilitation practices.
In addition to her doctoral work, Rebecca worked on additional research projects spanning her broad areas of research interest. These included two scoping reviews in the area of health professions education, two systematic reviews of measurement properties of healthcare tools and collaborative projects with kinesiologists and kinesiology stakeholders the broad focus of translating research in health professions education and knowledge translation to this emerging professional field. Outside of her research projects, Rebecca spends a considerable amount of time on advocacy and professional development for the professional of kinesiology. This includes being a member of the College of Kinesiologists of Ontario professional standards working groups, and administering and contributing media to the networking and professional development forum she co-founded – Connected Kinesiologists.
More About Rebecca
Rebecca’s path to her PhD was winding. In her undergraduate degree in kinesiology she was exposed to research as a volunteer in an exercise physiology research lab. However, Rebecca came to the realization during the course of her degree that the content she was most passionate about was anatomy. Rebecca worked as an undergraduate teaching assistant in the anatomy lab for several years and much to her surprise realized that she didn’t just enjoy anatomy, but teaching as well. This led her to pursue a hybrid degree in MSc in Anatomical Sciences in which a research project was required, but of equal focus was pedagogical training. She stayed close to her roots in her research during that degree, marrying her passion for the profession of kinesiology to her interest in education by working on a research agenda for the profession of kinesiology.
Rebecca’s interest in knowledge translation grew from her involvement in professional development and continuing education workshops for health professionals while working an instructor at the University of Waterloo. It was at this time that she gained first-hand knowledge regarding how common the research to practice gap is. While Rebecca was investigating how she could deliver continuing education workshops in order to promote sustained impact of the knowledge imparted, she came to deeply appreciate the field of knowledge translation. Rebecca’s interest in understanding the negative impact of the research to practice gap and her background as a clinician and educator inspired her to undertake a PhD investigating the sustainability of KT interventions.
Projects Rebecca is Involved In
Did you know ?
You can usually find Rebecca in the woods, on the water or up a mountain most (summer) weekends.
Rebecca enjoys making and then eating nearly any dessert with chocolate in it.
Rebecca can’t live without her breakfast smoothie.