April O’Connell

Cedars Sinai Hospital

April O’Connell, OTR/L, CHT, ACSM is an occupational therapist at Cedars Sinai Hospital in Beverly Hills, CA. She works with a variety of sports teams including the NFL, MLB and NBA and recently spoke at ASHT 2024 on the topic "Exercise as Medicine" and again in 2022 at ASHT and AAHS on the topic Rehabilitation of the Overhead Athlete. She is one of the main contributors to the fellowship program for hand and upper extremity rehabilitation as well as the co-director for Cedars Sinai Hand Symposium. April got her start as the Clinical Specialist in the Hand and Upper Extremity Therapy Department at NYU Langone Health. She has lectured to orthopedic surgeons and therapists nationally and internationally in current concepts of orthopedic rehabilitation of the upper extremity. Some of her most recent lectures include being a guest speaker for Dr. Radio on Sirius Satellite on topics for rehabilitation of the hand and upper extremity as well as injuries to the overhead athlete. In addition, she has presented on Flexor Tendon Repair Advancement at AAOS in 2015 and was later asked to speak at ASSH national conference in 2016 and ASHT in 2017. She recently presented her latest research at ASHT National Conference on flexor tendon rehabilitation in 2019. April is a founding member of the NYU Langone Golf and Pitching Labs and was the head hand therapist for the first successful bilateral hand and face allotransplantation. She earned her Occupational Therapy degree at Boston University, is a Certified Hand Therapist and is certified by the American Council of Sports Medicine (ACSM) as a Clinical Exercise Specialist. There are no financial or non-financial disclosures to report. Over the past four years, he has managed pain for over 5,000 unique patients, many of whom were dealing with disc herniations. His efforts have been focused on integrating an online, comprehensive pain management system, which includes physical therapy, pain psychology, and anti-inflammatory nutrition. This online approach has significantly transformed traditional methods of pain management, making personalized care more accessible and effective for patients around the world. Today, we will learn not only about the results of his research but also how these findings can aid other specialists in the field. Please join me in welcoming Alexandru Ilie as he shares his insights from four years of studying the effects of non-surgical pain therapy applied online