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Pinned Post
-Journal Club (JC) host- Abigail Brown - Specialist Mental Health Occupational Therapist (UK), providing inpatient rehabilitation.
-Research title- The cost of inaction on physical inactivity to public health care systems: a population-attributable fraction analysis
-Research authors- Costa Santos, A., Willumsen, J., Meheus, F., Ilbawi, A. and Bull, F.C.
-Journal of publication- The Lancet Global Health
A journal club (JC) is a group of individuals who meet regularly to critically discuss the clinical applicability of articles in current research journals. They are usually facilitated by a host/facilitator, who chooses a relevant article and prepares learning points for discussion.
Running for over a century, JCs have acted as a powerful education tool. They evolved in healthcare to encourage scholarly activity and research awareness, through reading and discussion of journal articles. In the medical field (medicine, radiology, nursing, etc), they have been going for some time. In general, only regional occupational therapy JCs have been active...
With pressures of modern life, keeping abreast of rapidly-growing medical literature can be difficult. However...
Research has (itself) shown that JCs are an effective method for improving evidence-based practice, knowledge and skills.
Barriers to running more traditional, 'in-person' JCs can include:
Challenges organising hosts and participants to meet at set times
Difficulty recruiting regional experts
Effort and time spent having a limited, local impact
But with today's technology, online education can open up learning possibilities - without geographical or time constraints. With the privilege of a global community, the Hub is pleased to bring you a FREE and open-access journal club!
An open-access journal article is selected periodically by a Hub Member, who takes the role of JC host, over a few months.
A summary and review of the article is posted in The OT Journal Club section of OT Circles, by the host.
The JC is then open for online discussion and critique, providing shared learning and professional development.
Participants can then print the JC page, with their input, as a record for their CPD/CEU file!
To understand how the JC is structured, check out a previous one. For example:
Rehabilitation Approaches for TBI (Autumn 2025)
Sensory Integration and Autism (Summer 2019)
To get started, please consider:
what topic or theme you would like to discuss
if you have a specific journal article in mind (must be open-access)
Then get in touch with the Hub Team, via either of the following:
Email - hubteam@theOThub.com
Online form - Connect with the Hub
We will assist you through the full process. This would start with you summarising and critiquing your chosen article - sending us a draft in email or Word format.
The Hub Team looks forward to your participation and to growing this collective knowledge base!
-Journal Club (JC) host- Jamie Grant - Specialist Neurological Occupational Therapist, UK. Provides outpatient rehabilitation, integrating neuro-technology with traditional therapy, to maximise meaningful outcomes.
-Research title- A comprehensive review of rehabilitation approaches for traumatic brain injury: efficacy and outcomes.
-Research authors- Shen, Y., Jiang, L., Lai, J., Hu, J., Liang, F., Zhang, X. and Ma, F.
-Research method- Structured literature search - PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science databases
Hi. Thank you for recommending this article. I feel it really is an excellent 'tour de force' of the area, providing a springboard for the reader to consider some of the areas in more detail. As an OT working as a case manager in the field of neuro-rehab, I will definitely be looking into some of the new emerging therapeutic and treatment modalities in more detail (virtual reality, biofeedback, neurofeedback, regenerative medicine). It will be interesting to see how OTs can embrace new therapeutic technologies (particularly VR) into the OT fold. Perhaps some links to actual case studies/providers of VR would have been useful, but, overall, a great introduction to the area.
Hi. I'm new here and I have observed that few articles are 2-5 years old. Is there new articles available to read in?
Thank you
Hi Ester. We've not actively run The OT Journal Club for a while - but are always open to starting it up again! Would you be interested in reviewing a journal article? Alternatively, the Research Portal has newer (but not Member-reviewed) articles. This is accessible to all Plus+ Members (more information here).
OT Circles Engager
OT Circles Engager
I connected with this article on a personal level. I always notice during the winter months I become much less active, and this has a clear impact on my wellbeing.
When my activity levels drop so does my mood.
On a physical level my joints feel stiffer, my flexibility decreases, and I tend to gain weight.
I also feel less motivated which then makes it harder to engage in physical activity. Reading the article helped me connect my own experience to the broader public health picture.
From an occupational therapy perspective, it highlights how supporting people to maintain meaningful movement and routines, especially during the winter months could have a real impact on both physical and mental health.