Occupational Therapy Department Facilities

Thomas R. McLean Health Sciences Building

The new Thomas R. McLean Health Sciences Building, is a 38,800 sq. ft. facility that houses the Doctor of Physical Therapy and Doctor of Occupational Therapy programs and three undergraduate programs: Health Care Administration, Kinesiology, and Occupational Therapy (OTA). The building is located in proximity to the existing health sciences facilities (the buildings of the University’s Physician Assistant Program and Nursing Program) and serves as an important “gateway” to the Methodist University campus main entry. The two-story glass entrance faces Ramsey Street to welcome students, faculty, guests, and alumni to the campus.

The Thomas R. McLean Health Sciences Building was designed with the intention of providing innovative, collaborative, and inviting learning spaces to meet the needs of all of the health science programs housed in the facility. In addition to the educational and community areas designed to facilitate interdisciplinary interaction across the health sciences programs; the DPT Program has designated classrooms, laboratories, and office space in the building.

McLean Health Sciences Video Tour

The Activities of Daily Living Laboratory

The Activities of Daily Living (ADL) Laboratory is an active learning classroom space featuring a functional kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, living room, and laundry room. This instructional space is designed to replicate a typical home and is not fully ADA-compliant; however, a full range of home modifications and adaptive equipment is available for students to apply their knowledge and skills in preparation for clinical practice. The laboratory space includes a garage space and a separate space to mimic a community grocery store.

The Motor Control & Pediatric Laboratory

The Motor Control and Pediatric Laboratory is equipped to support classroom and faculty research agendas across Health Sciences programs. This specialized area includes equipment for research and teaching motor control and sensory processing strategies to manage patients across the lifespan and with various diagnoses. The Motor Control and Pediatric Laboratory includes:

• Gait Trainers
• LiteGait™ System
• Adjustable-height Parallel Bars
• Curb-and-ramp Training Set
• Two Ceiling-mounted Swings
• Scooters
• Balance Boards
• Integrated Play Equipment
• Exercise Balls and Wedges

Mobility Courtyard

This designed outdoor laboratory space offers a variety of terrain and surfaces for learning functional mobility, community reintegration, and topographical negotiation skills. This space includes a vehicle station with a stationary automobile, providing students with the opportunity to teach and practice getting in and out of a car, loading/unloading the trunk, manipulating driving controls, and other components of driving rehabilitation training.

Clinical Skills Lab

This space features traditional equipment found in a clinical setting, including high-low tables, traction tables, therapeutic exercise equipment, and traditional clinical modality equipment such as fluid therapy, electrical stimulation, laser/light therapy machines, and therapeutic ultrasound.

In addition to these learning spaces, the Thomas R. McLean Health Sciences Building also houses the following interdisciplinary educational and research spaces:

The Human Performance Laboratory

The Human Performance Laboratory provides the faculty, students, and local community with research, educational testing, and therapeutic intervention equipment to promote health, fitness, and improved functional performance. Equipment available for use in the Human Performance Laboratory includes:

• SwimEx™ Aquatic Therapy Pool with V-Groove Treadmill
• BodPod™ whole body plethysmograph
• Biodex™ System 4 Pro Orthopaedic Testing and Rehabilitation System

The Motion Analysis Laboratory

This laboratory space is dedicated to collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data on motor control and the biomechanical analysis of human movement. The laboratory space supports a broad range of clinical and research projects and offers comprehensive analysis of human movement, including kinematics, kinetics, and EMG. Lab equipment includes:

• Fully integrated, turn-key Motion Monitor stationary base station package that incorporates 14 Vicon Bonita 10 cameras, 16-channel Delsys wireless EMG, 4 Bertec non-conductive force plates, 1 Basler ACE camera with 120 fps, and C3D model builder plug-in.
• A Motion Monitor portable Base Station that includes a 12-sensor Polhemus G4 system with 4 hubs and 2 transmitters, A plug-in, a Force plate plug-in, and 1 Basler ACE camera with 120 fps. The advantage of this system is its portability, which gives the faculty the flexibility to capture motions indoors and out.
• Protokinetics instrumented walkway. This portable device measures and analyzes temporal/spatial gait parameters.
• Woodway Treadmill
• Biodex™ Balance System