Jennifer Dermott

Jennifer Dermott is an MSc candidate (2012 - 2015) in the Rehabilitation Sciences Institute at the University of Toronto. She has a strong clinical background as a physical therapist at SickKids Hospital with specialty in orthpaedics. Her MSc project (co-supervised by Drs. Wright and Unni Narayanan) was entitled: "Development of Adapted Gait Outcomes Assessment List (GOAL) for children and youth with lower limb deficiency, deformity, or leg length discrepancy." While there are non-diagnostic specific measures available to track the outcomes achieved by these children over extended follow-up periods, these are not well-targeted to meet the high activity demands and goals on which these children with lower limb dysfunction typically want to work. As a result, clinicians’ and researchers’ understanding of the outcomes associated with the interventions these children undergo is limited and may miss the mark as far as measuring what matters to the child and family. it is hoped that the adaption of the GOAL that was developed by Dr. Narayanan for children with cerebral palsy, will directly address this measurement gap.