Danielle Levac
Danielle Levac is a physiotherapist and associate professor in the School of Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Montreal. She is a researcher at the CHU Sainte-Justine Azrieli Research Centre where she leads the Musculoskeletal Health, Rehabilitation, and Medical Technologies Axis. She is Scientific Director of the Technopole in Pediatric Rehabilitation, located at the Marie Enfant Rehabilitation Centre, where she leads the “Laboratoire d’innovations numériques, polytechniques et interactives en réadaptation pour enfants (LaboINSPIRE).” Her research activities focus on collaborating with clinicians and families to promote the sustainable, evidence-based integration of interactive technologies in pediatric rehabilitation.
The art and science of virtual rehabilitation
Virtual rehabilitation technologies promise to transform clinical practice, but what do they actually deliver, and what do they demand of us in return? Drawing on over ten years of implementation research, this keynote traces a candid arc from early missteps to hard-won insights. Through the lens of art and science, it explores what happens to the therapeutic relationship when a screen is used: how interactive technologies can unlock engagement, autonomy, and play for children with disabilities, and how the same features that make them powerful can complicate the human-centred work at the heart of rehabilitation.
