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Portrait of Mark Johnston

Mark V. Johnston, PhD, FACRM

  • Professor Emeritus, Programs in Occupational Therapy Science, Technology & Rehabilitation

Education

Ph D Psychology Claremont Graduate University 1984
Pre-doctoral fellowships National Science Foundation Graduate Student Fellowship 1976
MA Psychology California State University 1975
BA Economics University of Chicago 1968

Speaker Topics

  • Evidence Based Practice in Health-related Rehabilitation
  • Measurement of Rehabilitation Outcomes and Quality of Care
  • Research Methodology
  • Cost-effectiveness and Value of Alternative Interventions
  • Care coordination for people with disabilities and chronic conditions

Interests & Expertise

Mark Johnston’s research has centered about questions of measurement of activity, health, and quality of life outcomes after health-related rehabilitation; factors predicting or determining these outcomes, including personal factors and care system factors; evaluation of the effectiveness of interventions using both experimental and quasiexperimental research designs; and the synthesis and utilization of best evidence practice, that is, evidence-based practice.

His research has addressed the needs of people with many types of disability and chronic-illnesses but has particularly focused on activity-based interventions for groups with neurological disabilities, such as traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury and stroke.

Johnston is an experienced investigator, having served as Principal Investigator on seven research grants with funding of several million (over $4.5 million, as of 2009), although he has more frequently served as Co-Investigator (16 grants), providing methodological support to research teams. He had published 59 peer reviewed scientific studies, 19 chapters, and 13 reviews (nine peer-reviewed).

Johnston also has considerable experience as Project Director and mentor to Post-Doctoral Fellows and Doctoral students, providing advanced, multidisciplinary training in rehabilitation research skills and strategy.

Selected Publications

Seel, R. T., Dijkers, M. P., & Johnston, M. V. (2012). Developing and using evidence to improve rehabilitation practice. Arch Phys Med Rehabil, 93(8 Suppl), S97-100.
Johnston, M. V., & Dijkers, M. P. (2012). Toward improved evidence standards and methods for rehabilitation: recommendations and challenges. Arch Phys Med Rehabil, 8(Suppl2), S185-99.
Toglia, J., Goverover, Y., Johnston, M. V., & Dain, B. (2011). Application of the multi contextual approach in promoting learning and transfer of strategy use in an individual with TBI and executive dysfunction. OTJR: Occupation, Participation and Health, 31(1), 53-60.
Pizur-Barnekow, K. A., Darragh, A., & Johnston, M. V. (2011). “I cried because I didn’t know if I could take care of him”. Toward a taxonomy of interactive and critical health literacy as portrayed by caregivers of children with special health care needs. Journal of Health Communication, 16(Suppl 3), 205-211.
Johnston, M. V., Vanderheiden, G. C., Farkas, M. D., Rogers, E. S., Summers, J. A., & Westbrook, J. D. (2010, February). The challenge of evidence in disability and rehabilitation research and practice: A position Paper..
Toglia, J., Johnston, M. V., Goverover, Y., & Dain, B. (2010). A Multicontext Approach to promoting transfer of strategy use and self-regulation after brain injury: An exploratory study. Brain Inj, 24(4), 664-677.
Pizur-Barnekow, K. A., Erickson, S., Johnston, M. V., Bass, T. N., Lucinski, L., & Bleuel, D. (2010). Early identification of developmental delays through surveillance, screening and diagnostic evaluation. Infants and Young Children, 23, 323-329.
Johnston, M. V., & Smith, R. O. (2010, January (1st Quarter/Winter)). Single subject designs: Current methodologies and future directions. Occupational Therapy Journal of Research, 30(1), 4-10.
Hwang, K., Johnston, M. V., & Smith, J. K. (2009). Adult attachment styles and life satisfaction in individuals with physical disabilities. Applied Research in Quality of Life, 4(3), 295-310.
Johnston, M. V., & Case-Smith, J. (2009). Development and testing of interventions in occupational therapy: Towards a new generation of research in occupational therapy. Occupational Therapy Journal of Research, 29(1), 4-13.
Johnston, M. V., Vanderheiden, G. C., Farkas, M. D., Rogers, E. S., Summers, J. A., & Westbrook, J. D. (2009). The challenge of evidence in disability and rehabilitation research and practic..
Yu, H., Agarwal, S., Johnston, M. V., & Cohen, A. (2009, January (1st Quarter/Winter)). Are figure legends sufficient? Evaluating the contributionof associated text to biomedical figure comprehension. ournal of Biomedical Discovery and Collaboration, 4(1).
Johnston, M. V., & Graves, D. E. (2008). Towards guidelines for evaluation of measures: An introduction with application to spinal cord injury. Journal of Spinal Cord Medicine, 31(1), 13-26.
Rajan, M., Pogacha, L., Tsenga, C. L., Reiber, G., & Johnston, M. V. (2007). Facility-level variations in patient-reported footer knowledge sufficiency: implications for diabetes performance measurement. Primary Care Diabetes, 1, 147-153.
Hwang, K., Johnston, M. V., & Smith, J. K. (2007). Romantic attachment in individuals with physical disabilities. Rehabilitation Psychology, 52(2), 184-195.

Professional Memberships

  • Co-Chair of the Clinical Practice Committee of the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine
  • Facilitator of the Task Force on Standards and Methods of Evidence, National Center for Dissemination of Disability Research, funded by NIDRR.

Honors & Awards

Lifetime Achievement Award (2011, October 14) American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine, Brain Injury Interdisciplinary Special Interest Group.
Elected Fellow of the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine (2004, September 10) American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine.
"Best scientific poster" (2003) ACRM-ASNR 2003 Joint Conference.
Best Scientific Poster (2003) ACRM-ASNR 2003 Joint Conference.
"Distinguished Member, American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine" (2002, October 5) Bestowed in annual conference.
Distinguished Member (2002, October 5) American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine.
Association of Academic Physiatrists award for Excellence in Research Writing Award for "Admission motor impairment as a predictor of physical disability after stroke rehabilitation (1995) American Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.
Excellence in Research Writing Award for "Admission motor impairment as a predictor of physical disability after stroke rehabilitation (1995) American Journal of Physical Medicine.
Keynote speaker, National Invitational Conference on Rehabilitation Outcomes, National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research (1994, August) NIH.
Editorial on outcome studies by Johnston and others: "The four papers will act as standards against which other rehabilitation outcome studies are compared." (1991) UMDNJ/NJMS and Kessler Institute/KMRREC.
National Science Foundation Fellowship (1976) Claremont Graduate School.
National Science Foundation Fellowship (1974) Claremont Graduate School.
Phi Kappa Phi (1974) National Scholastic Honor Society, California State University at Los Angeles.
Phi Kappa Phi National Scholastic Honor Society (1974) California State University at Los Angeles.
University Scholarship (1964) University of Chicago.