The second annual Kaua‘i Symposium presented by the Occupational Therapy Association of Hawai‘i drew participants from Hawai‘i’s four largest islands and four states, including California, Nebraska, New York and Alaska. The event, which is one of two offerings OTAH puts
The second annual Kaua‘i Symposium presented by the Occupational Therapy Association of Hawai‘i drew participants from Hawai‘i’s four largest islands and four states, including California, Nebraska, New York and Alaska.
The event, which is one of two offerings OTAH puts on each year as part of its educational program, was held at the Radisson Kauai Beach Resort last weekend.
The symposium was coordinated by Steve Kline, of the West Kauai Medical Center/Kaua‘i Veterans Memorial Hospital.
As the Kaua‘i representative for OTAH, he was largely responsible for putting together the conference, working closely with others to promote the speakers, vendors and participants.
Kaua‘i was chosen for a second year because of the success of the first symposium here last year, Kline said.
“We had really great comments last year. Everyone said they were waiting for the next one.” The practice of having this program on an outer island, rather than centralizing all educational efforts on O‘ahu, has worked out well.
This year, the symposium was extended to a day and a half rather than the single day event held in 2003.
The second day was devoted to a hands-on laboratory for participants in neural development treatments (NDT).
Those in attendance paired up in teams and learned and practiced techniques that would be used on actual patients, performing treatment tasks on partners as if they were patients.
Expert speakers lined up for the event presented lectures on a wide variety of topics Speakers included keynote speaker Dr. Barbara Kornblau, who in addition to speaking on the future of therapy also touched on aspects of Asberger Syndrome. Two of her six children have been diagnosed with the syndrome.
Other speakers included: Dr.
Gilbert Hager, a physiatrist who practices on Kaua‘i and in Honolulu.
He spoke on neuropathies tendon injuries such as sprains, strains, carpal tunnel, tendonitis and others.
Dr. David Rovinsky, attending orthopedic surgeon at Wilcox Memorial Hospital, discussed post and pre-op arthritis.
Pediatrician Dr. Maila Coleman of West Kaua‘i Medical Center /KVMH, touched on pediatrics while Kay Folmar, P.T. discussed NDT for adults. Also presented was a session on kinesiotaping.
Kline said the presentations were very valuable. “I learned some great information that I didn’t know much about,” he noted.
Having information presented by colleagues from the mainland was also a great asset to those at the symposium because information available in the state sometimes lags behind that available on the mainland.
