Interests & Expertise

Dr. 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 for the effectiveness and value of rehabilitative interventions, 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.

Dr. Johnston is an experienced investigator, having served as Principal Investigator on 7 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 (9 peer reviewed), as of 2009.

Dr. 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.

Recent Funded Grants

• work to discover reasons for the increasing rates of medical instability, mortality, and rehospitalization that many disability groups have experienced following rehabilitation nationwide, and
• work to develop better - more rigorous yet sensitive - standards and methods for synthesis of evidence on the effectiveness of rehabilitation.

Professional Membership

• 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.

Recent Publications

Johnston, M. V., Dijkers, M. P. (2012). Toward improved evidence standards and methods for rehabilitation: recommendations and challenges. Arch Phys Med Rehabil, 93 (8 Suppl 2):S185-99.

Johnston, M. V., & Smith, R. O. (2010). Single Subject Designs: Current Methodologies and Future Directions. Occupational Therapy Journal of Research, 30, 2-6.

Johnston, M. V., & Tomashek, D. (2009). Poster 93: Adverse Outcomes Following Inpatient Rehabilitation: Predictive Relationships in a Nationwide Database. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 90(10), e40.

Tomashek, D., & Johnston, M. V. (2009). Poster 92: Comparison of Diagnostic Groupings as Predictors of Mortality After Inpatient Rehabilitation. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 90(10), e39-e40.

Yu, H., Johnston, M. V., & Cohen, A. (2009). Are Figure Legends Sufficient? Evaluating the Contribution of Associated Text to Biomedical Figure Comprehension. Journal of Biomedical Discovery and Collaboration, 4.

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.

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.

Yu, H., Agarwal, S., Johnston, M., & Cohen, A. (2009). Are figure legends sufficient? Evaluating the contributionof associated text to biomedical figure comprehension. Journal of Biomedical Discovery and Collaboration, 4(1). Accepteed and published 6 January 2009. Publication at: http://www.j-biomed-discovery.com/content/4/1/1 Confirmed January 18, 2009.

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 Practice: A Position Paper. National Center for the Dissemination of Disability Research Task Force on Standards of Evidence and Methods, Austin, TX: SEDL

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.

Goverover, Y., Johnston, M. V., et al. (2007). Treatment to improve self-awareness in persons with acquired brain injury. Brain Inj, 21(9), 913-23.

Johnston, M. V., Graves, D. E., & Greene, M. T. (2007). The Uniform Post-Acute Assessment Tool: Systematically Evaluating the Quality of Measurement Evidence. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 88(11), 1505-12.

Hwang, K., Johnston, M., Smith, J. K. (2007). Romantic attachment in individuals with physical disabilities. Rehabilitation Psychology, 52(2), 184-195.

Johnston, M. V., Shawaryn, M. A., Malec, J., Kreutzer, J., & Hammond, F. M. (2006). The structure of functional and community outcomes following traumatic brain injury. Brain Inj., 20, 391-407.

Johnston, M. V., Pogach, L., Rajan, M., Mitchinson, A., Krein, S. L., Bonacker, K., et al. (2006). Personal and treatment factors associated with foot self-care among veterans with diabetes. J.Rehabil Res.Dev., 43, 227-238.

Carnevale, G. J., Anselmi, V., Johnston, M. V., Busichio, K., & Walsh, V. (2006). A natural setting behavior management program for persons with acquired brain injury: A randomized clinical trial. Arch.Phys.Med.Rehabil, 87, 1289-1297.

Johnston, M. V., & Whyte, J. (2006). Applying evidence standards to rehabilitation research: an overview. Am.J.Phys.Med.Rehabil., 85, 292-309.

Johnston, M. V., Eastwood, E., Wilkerson, D. L., Anderson, L., & Alves, A. (2005). Systematically assessing and improving the quality and outcomes of medical rehabilitation programs. In J.DeLisa, B. M. Gans, & et al. (Eds.), Rehabilitation Medicine: Principles and Practice (4th ed., pp. 1163-1192). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Johnston, M. V., Goverover, Y., & Dijkers, M. (2005). Community activities and individuals' satisfaction with them: quality of life in the first year after traumatic brain injury. Arch.Phys.Med.Rehabil., 86, 735-745.

Tiersky, L. A., Anselmi, V., Johnston, M. V., Kurtyka, J., Roosen, E., Schwartz, T., et al. (2005). A trial of neuropsychological rehabilitation in mild spectrum traumatic brain injury. Arch.Phys.Med.Rehabil., 86, 1565-1574.

Johnston, M. V., Diab, M. E., Chu, B. C., & Kirshblum, S. (2005). Preventive services and health behaviors among people with spinal cord injury. J.Spinal Cord.Med., 28, 43-54.

Diab, M. E., & Johnston, M. V. (2004). Relationships between level of disability and receipt of preventive health services. Arch.Phys.Med.Rehabil., 85, 749-757.

Kim, S. S., Kaplowitz, S., & Johnston, M. V. (2004). The effects of physician empathy on patient satisfaction and compliance. Eval.Health Prof., 27, 237-251.

Padberg, F. T., Jr., Johnston, M. V., & Sisto, S. A. (2004). Structured exercise improves calf muscle pump function in chronic venous insufficiency: a randomized trial. J.Vasc.Surg., 39, 79-87.

Johnston, M. V., Wood, K., Millis, S., Page, S., & Chen, D. (2004). Perceived quality of care and outcomes following spinal cord injury: minority status in the context of multiple predictors. J.Spinal Cord.Med., 27, 241-251.

Johnston, M. V. (2003). Desiderata for clinical trials in medical rehabilitation. Am.J.Phys.Med.Rehabil., 82, S3-S7.

Johnston, M. V., Wood, K. D., & Fiedler, R. (2003). Characteristics of effective and efficient rehabilitation programs. Arch.Phys.Med.Rehabil., 84, 410-418.

Johnston, M., Nissim, E. N., Wood, K., Hwang, K., & Tulsky, D. (2002). Objective and subjective handicap following spinal cord injury: interrelationships and predictors. J.Spinal Cord.Med., 25, 11-22.