Prof. Navah Ratzon

Head of the Stanley Steyer School of Health professions, Sackler Faculty of Medicine. (Since 2020)
Full professor, Department of Occupational Therapy.
2007-2012: Head of the  Dept. of Occupational Therapy.
2006-2019: Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ottawa.
 

My main research activities are focosed arround two main areas. The first area of research is focused on the understanding of the abilities and skills of the healthy and disabled driver, the environment in which they drive in and the way that the task of driving is performed.  In addition, my research is focused on evaluating the efficiency of intervention of occupational therapy in order to reduce risk factors that are related to driving abilities.

My work implements advanced technology such as the use of driving simulator and In Vehicle Data Recorders (IVDRS) which enables both off road and on road evaluation and monitoring driving for long periods of time. Since driving is an instrumental activity of daily living that is needed for all populations the studies refer to variety of populations such as professional drivers, youth with ADHD, people with mental illnesses and people with motor disabilities.  

The second area of research is introducing models that offer a better understanding of ergonomic risk factors and their effect on complains and musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) and function. The results are implemented in further studies that evaluate the efficacy of innovative intervention programs such as multidimensional intervention for reducing MSDs, improving body posture, upper extremity kinematics, using biofeedback, and tele-rehabilitation intervention programs.

My expertise both as an occupational therapist (clinician) and as a searcher enable me to contribute to better usage of evaluations and interventions both for research and clinical purposes and hopefully to contribute to the safe driving of different populations.
 

Education:

2012             Yearly Excellence Award of the Occupational Therapy association

Since 2004  A member of the National Council of Rehabilitation, Ministry of Health, Israel.

Since 2005   A member of the National Council of Workers’ Health, Ministry of Health and Ministry of Industry, Israel.

2007-2017    A member of the Higher Professional Committee of Occupational Therapy, Israel.

2017-2020    Head of the Israel Council for Advancement of Women in Science and

                     Technology, Ministry of Science, Technology and Space

Gat, S., Ratzon, N. (2014). Comparing occupational therapy students' perceptions regarding traditional and nontraditional fieldwork. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 68, pp. e47-54.

Ratzon, N. Z., Amit, Y., Friedman, S., Zamir, S., Rand, D. (2014). Functional capacity evaluation; does it change the determination of the degree of work disability? Disability and Health Journal, 8(1),pp.80-85.

Shichrur, R., Sarid, A., & Ratzon, N. Z. (2014). Determining the sampling time frame for In-Vehicle Data Recorder measurement in assessing drivers. Transportation Research Part C:Emerging Technologies,42,99-106

Naveh, Y., Shapira, A. Ratzon, N. (2015). Practice analyses: Using a driving simulator during vehicle adaptation was accepted to the British Journal of Occupational Therapy, pp.377-382.

Ratzon, Z. N., Uziely, B., de Boer, A.G.E.M, Rottenberg, Y. (2016). Unemployment risk and decreased income 2 and 4 years after thyroid cancer diagnosis: a population based study. Thyroid, 33(15), pp. e20618, 2016.

Marom, B, Carel, R.S., Sharabi, M. Ratzon, N.Z. (2016). Cross-cultural adaption of the 12-item version of the world health organization disability assessment schedule 2.0 (WHODAS 2.0) for Hebrew-speaking subjects. Disability and Rehabilitation, 39 (12), pp. 1155-1161.

Ratzon, Z. N., Kadury Lunievsky, E.,Ashkenasi, A., Laks, J., Cohen, H. A. (2017). Simulated Driving Skills Evaluation with Pre-driving Lesson ADHD Teenagers. American Journal of Occupational Therapy.71(3).

Kaufman-Cohen, Y., Portnoy, S., Sopher, R., Mashiach, L., Baruch-Halaf, L.,& Ratzon N.Z. (2018). The Correlation between Upper Extremity Musculoskeletal Symptoms and Joint Kinematics, Playing Habits and Hand Span During Playing Among Piano Students. Plos one. 13(12), e0208788.

Hellinger, N., Lipskaya-Velikovsky, L., Weizman, A., Ratzon, NZ. (2019).Comparing executive fucntioning and clinical sociodemographic characteristics of people with schizophrenia who hold a driver’s license to those who do not. Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy 86 (1), pp. 70-80.

Marom, B., Ratzon, N.,Carel, R.S., Sharabi. M. (2019). Return-to-work barriers among manual workers after hand injuries: one-year follow-up cohort study. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. 100(3), pp. 422-432,

Nissim, M., Livny, A., Barmatz, C., Tsarfaty, G., Berner, Y., Sacher, Y., Giron, J., & Ratzon, N.Z. (2020). Effects of aquatic physical intervention on fall risk, working memory and hazard-perception as pedestrians in older people: a pilot trial. BMC Geriatrics, 20 (1).

Bachar, Y., Karpin, H., Dror, G., Lieberman, L., Dvir, D., & Ratzon, N. (2018). Executive functions and daily functions, road sign recognition and driving self-report among healthy and post-stroke drivers.

Harefuah, 157(9), 556–560.

Shichrur, R., & Ratzon, N.Z. (2020). Translation, validation and adaptation of a Safe driving behavioral questionnaire (Israeli Safe Driving Behavior Measure) for Elderly drivers in Israel. IJOT, 29 (2),100-128.

Treisman, H., Ratzon, N.Z., Itzkovich, M. & Avrech Bar, M. (2020). Performance of everyday occupations and perceived health of spouses of men with spinal cord injury at discharge and 6-months later. Spine, 45(22), 1580-1586.

Unsworth, C., Hext, G., Baker, A., Ratzon, N., Browne, M. (2020). Maze test score time adjustments when using non-dominant hand in fitness-to-drive assessments. International Journal of Rehabilitation Research, 43(4), 324-329.

Shichrur, R., Ratzon, N.Z., Shoham, A., Borowsky, A. (2021). The Effects of an In-Vehicle Collision Warning System Feedback on Older Drivers’ On-Road Scanning Patterns at Intersections. Frontiers in Psychology,  12, 323.

Ratzon, N., Perlman, A., & Rosenbloom, T. (2021). Safe Driving and Road-Crossing Tasks: A Particular Case of Successful Transfer of Learning. Transportation research part F: traffic psychology and behaviour, 82, 43-53.