Rehabilitative and preventative strategies for ensuring shoulder function

Improving outcomes in clinical populations

breast cancer survivor performing reach test
Knowledge of shoulder function can be applied to developing improved surgical treatments, better diagnostic techniques, rehabilitation strategies, and evaluation of the progression of recovery from an injury or surgical procedure.

Further, specific populations, usually due to either exposure-related or capacity differentiations, demand particular attention with regards to shoulder health. A number of preventative and accommodative strategies are under investigation with respect to these groups.

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Completed and ongoing research

DIESEL trainees who are focusing on clinical shoulder research are currently studying:

  • shoulder function and dysfunction in breast cancer survivors following completion of treatment

Some of the work DIESEL has contributed (*denotes trainee):

  • *Lang A.E., Kim S.Y., Dickerson C.R., and Milosavljevic S., 2020, Measurement of objective shoulder function following breast cancer surgery: a scoping review protocol, Physical Therapy Reviews, 22(3-4): 149-152.
  • *Lang A.E., Kim S.Y., Milosavljevic S., and Dickerson C.R., 2020, Estimating muscle forces for breast cancer survivors during functional tasks, Journal of Applied Biomechanics, 36(6): 408-415.
  • *Lang A.E., Murphy M., Dickerson C.R., Stavness I., and Kim S.Y., 2020, Shoulder dysfunction in breast cancer survivors: can treatment type or musculoskeletal factors identify those at higher risk? Rehabilitation Oncology, in press as of May 14, 2020.
  • *Brookham RL, *Cudlip AC, Dickerson CR, 2018, Examining upper limb kinematics and dysfunction of breast cancer survivors in functional dynamic tasks, Clinical Biomechanics, 55:86-93. abstract

Visit our publications page for a complete list of published peer-reviewed articles.