Ethical Use of AI in Occupational Therapy Practice: What Must Remain Human (09/29/2026)

LIVE WEBINAR – September 29, 2026

Presented by Van Lemmon

PLEASE NOTE: This LIVE continuing education is available for both in-person and virtual participation. If you are participating in person, the CE will take place at the OSU Outpatient Care – Upper Arlington (1800 Zollinger Road, Columbus, OH 43221 — Room 1400).

6:00 – 7:00pm | 1.0 Contact Hours

Description:

Brief Description: Generative AI is increasingly influencing documentation, information gathering, evidence use, and clinical decision-making in occupational therapy practice. This session examines the ethical use of AI through the AOTA Code of Ethics, Standards of Conduct, professional guidance, and state licensure responsibilities. Participants will explore how AI can support practice while maintaining human responsibility for clinical reasoning, client-centered decision-making, professional judgment, and accountability.

Objectives

Apply ethical and professional reasoning to determine when AI can support practice and when clinical judgment and responsibility must remain human.

Describe how generative AI can influence information gathering, evidence use, and clinical decision-making in occupational therapy practice.

Examine how the principles of the AOTA Code of Ethics apply to generative AI in clinical practice.

Brief Description: Generative AI is increasingly influencing documentation, information gathering, evidence use, and clinical decision-making in occupational therapy practice. This session examines the ethical use of AI through the AOTA Code of Ethics, Standards of Conduct, professional guidance, and state licensure responsibilities. Participants will explore how AI can support practice while maintaining human responsibility for clinical reasoning, client-centered decision-making, professional judgment, and accountability.

Objectives

• Describe how generative AI can influence information gathering, evidence use, and clinical decision-making in occupational therapy practice.
• Examine how the principles of the AOTA Code of Ethics apply to generative AI in clinical practice.
• Apply ethical and professional reasoning to determine when AI can support practice and when clinical judgment and responsibility must remain human.

Presenter bio:

Dr. Van Lemmon is an Assistant Professor of Practice in the Occupational Therapy Division at The Ohio State University, where he primarily teaches in the Assistive and Rehabilitative Technology Certificate Program. As an occupational therapist, Dr. Lemmon has primarily worked in school-based settings, where he developed a strong interest in assistive technology. His work emphasizes client-centered, occupation-based assessment practices to effectively match assistive technology tools with a wide range of learning needs and diagnoses.

His scholarship and teaching increasingly focus on the use of generative artificial intelligence in higher education, with particular attention to how these technologies can be leveraged to facilitate participation in learning. Dr. Lemmon is interested in how generative AI may reduce barriers to academic participation, particularly for individuals with specific learning disabilities, while maintaining learner effort, engagement, and active involvement in the learning process. His work also examines the ethical use of generative AI and the importance of ensuring that these technologies support, rather than replace, human reasoning and participation.

Hosted by the OOTA West Central District