Hand Therapy for Musicians by Dr. Aviva Wolff
Aviva works with individual musicians and musical groups to educate, prevent and manage performance related injuries. She uses a customized approach that is based on the player’s specific instrument and performance demands to promote healthy habits and avoid injury. She is available for individual consultations and group presentations.
Aviva’s research vision to innovate, design and study targeted interventions that improve hand and arm function in individuals with musculoskeletal injuries and neuromuscular disorders emerged directly from clinical experience as an occupational therapist and the desire to improve upon existing techniques.
This lead her to study specific conditions that affect hand and arm function using sophisticated motion analysis technology to better understand the underlying factors that control movement. She developed and applied specific techniques to assess upper extremity motion in every day functional activities, in reach and grasp movements, and most recently to study the unique movement patterns in instrumental musicians. These data are used to assess change over time, to understand the effect of surgical and therapeutic interventions, and to develop predictive models for treatment outcomes.
This in turn leads to the development of improved techniques that target acquisition and recovery of hand and arm function. She has independently lead and collaborated with orthopedic surgeons, scientists, and biomechanists on several funded studies that have led to multiple presentations and publications.
Read more about Aviva's research here
Read more about Aviva's research work based on the following research fields: