Dr Judith Hocking

Research Assistant (Brain Injury Rehabilitation)

College of Nursing and Health Sciences

judith.hocking@flinders.edu.au

Bedford Park

Judith has a keen interest in supporting client-centred goal-setting and attainment and client motivation. These key precepts undergirded her PhD in which a motivational chatbot called 'RehabChat' was co-designed and developed for supporting goal-setting and attainment by clients receiving brain injury rehabilitation. RehabChat provides a conversational user-interface and is intended to be used with clinician oversight alongside usual rehabilitation care.

Judith is currently part of a research team conducting a feasibility trial of RehabChat in brain injury rehabilitation clinic settings. This one-year project is fully funded by the Lifetime Support Authority (grant #R2229).

Judith's work is informed by scientific literature and co-design processes. Her prior clinical experience as a physiotherapist spans 20 years, with much of this including working in multi-disciplinary settings with clients with movement and cognitive challenges arising from acquired and developmental conditions.

Qualifications

2022 PhD - Flinders Digital Health Research Centre, Flinders University

2016 M. Clinical Sci. - The Joanna Briggs Institute, The University of Adelaide

2008 B. Health Sci (Hons) - Discipline of Medicine, The University of Adelaide

1994 B. App. Sci. (Physiotherapy) - University of South Australia

Key responsibilities

Judith's current work within the grant-funded project for feasibility testing of RehabChat in clinic settings involves the following key responsibilities which will be completed in consultation with the rest of the research team:

Iterative refinement and technical testing of RehabChat
Integration of RehabChat for use by clients and clinicians in the clinical settings
Ensuring that the needs of clients with acquired brain injury (ABI) and clinicians providing brain injury rehabilitation are noted and addressed throughout the project's life-cycle
Planning for 'next-steps' of research for RehabChat - its development and testing
Drafting key documents: ethics amendments and reports; funder reports
Maintaining stakeholder relationships: email, meetings, update reports.