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The OT Algorithm

@theotalgorithm

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👩🏽‍💻 building an AI literacy curriculum + community for occupational therapy
➡️ follow for OT- & AI-related hot takes + headlines

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Last year at the 2025 ILOTA Conference, I gave an AI session and walked out buzzing. 🎤

So many of the questions afterward were about how we position OT to contribute to innovation and technology, right alongside real concerns about the ethical and environmental landscape.

Both belong in the conversation.

Now I'm bringing it back, and registration is officially open! Join me at ILOTA 2026 with @ilota1918 👇🏼

📍 ILOTA 2026 Annual Conference�🗓️ Saturday, Nov. 21st�⏰ 2:15-2:45 PM CT�🎤 Platform Presentation�💬 "Where Does AI Literacy Fit? Integrating AI Education into OT Curricula"

Come with your questions. 👀 What would you want answered in a session on AI literacy in your classrooms?

#OccupationalTherapy #ILOTA #ILOTA2026 #AIinHealthcare by @theotalgorithm

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3 days ago

Most AI content for OTs lands in one of two camps: "this will save you hours!" or "this will end the profession."

I'm not in either camp. 🙃

I'm Pooja, an OT. Every week in The OT Algorithm I break down one AI headline, follow up on past stories, and walk through a practical way to use these tools in your work. No hype; no doom. Just literacy.

This account is the bite-sized version.

What's one AI question you can't stop thinking about? Drop it below 👇 It might become a future post.

#OccupationalTherapy #AIinHealthcare #OTstudent Navy graphic with large white text "No hype. No doom." and amber text "Just literacy." Subtitle: "What The OT Algorithm is, and who it's for." Amber SWIPE button bottom right. by @theotalgorithm

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6 days ago

Hi, I'm Pooja.

I'm a double-board-certified occupational therapist and gerontologist, and I built The OT Algorithm to fill a gap.

My background is in acute care at a major trauma hospital. I know what it's like to have 15 minutes to make a clinical impact inside a sea of complex systems.

I've also spent a decade mentoring and teaching, so I know the invisible workload of curriculum, syllabi, assignments, and weekly lectures. And as a private practice owner, I understand the administrative burden that quietly fuels burnout.

Here's the part that surprises people. I immersed myself in generative AI not to replace OTPs, but to protect them.

Used responsibly, AI can offload the tasks that drain time and energy, so OTPs can reinvest in judgment, connection, and care.

That's why I'm here. Join me in this journey!
#OccupationalTherapy #AIinOT #OTpractice #AILiteracy Portrait of Pooja A. Patel smiling, with a navy band reading Hi, I'm Pooja, and a subhead naming her a double board certified occupational therapist and gerontologist and founder of The OT Algorithm. by @theotalgorithm

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a month ago

Sunday reset ☕

If this week's headlines felt like a lot, here's the thread I keep coming back to: when powerful institutions keep choosing to police themselves, the people paying attention, asking questions, and refusing to look away are doing something that matters.

That includes you.

Stay curious. Stay literate. And lead well where you are.

If this account helped this week, send it to one colleague who still thinks they can sit this out 💛
#OccupationalTherapy #AIliteracy Photo of Pooja presenting beside a projected slide titled "Closing Message: AI won't take your job," with windows and trees behind her. Below, navy text reads "Stay curious. Stay literate." and teal text reads "Lead well where you are." by @theotalgorithm

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9 hours ago

Unpopular opinion: refusing to engage with AI isn't the "safe," neutral choice.

You can challenge AI's real harms AND stay current on the precision AI that could genuinely help the people in your care. Holding both is the job.

Where do you land? 🤔
From Issue 37 (link in bio).
#OccupationalTherapy #OTethics Navy quote card with a large amber quotation mark. White text: "Our patients don't benefit from our moral purity." Amber text: "They benefit from our competence." Attributed to Pooja A. Patel, DrOT, OTR/L, BCG, The OT Algorithm, Issue #37. by @theotalgorithm

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a day ago

Assumption: AI glasses are either amazing assistive tech or a privacy nightmare.

Reality: same glasses. Different ethics. 👓

For a client with low vision, they can mean reading mail, signage, clothing tags on their own. That's participation.
For everyone else in the room, they raise a question most of us haven't answered yet: did I agree to be recorded?

Norway just proposed a temporary ban on AI glasses in selected places, health institutions included. Not a total ban. But healthcare, gyms, pools, schools… that's a map of where a lot of OT happens.

Our role isn't to ban the glasses. It's what we already do with any assistive tech: assess, match, teach, advocate.

Has your clinic or program written a wearable-camera policy yet? 👇

#OccupationalTherapy #AssistiveTechnology #AIethics

Full breakdown in Issue 40 of the newsletter (link in bio). Light gray graphic with navy text "Same glasses." and teal text "Different ethics." Subtitle: "What OTs need to know about camera-equipped AI glasses." Amber SWIPE button. by @theotalgorithm

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2 days ago

Hot take: the opposite of blind AI adoption isn't refusal.

It's literacy. 📚

When I teach AI in OT, I start with ethics, not tools. This slide is an ethical framework for AI in OT: human-centered, helpful, factual, fair (Kaelin, Nilsson, & Lindgren, 2024).

Think about a medication's black-box warning. We don't ignore it. We don't refuse to ever use the drug. We read it, weigh it for this patient, and decide with eyes open.

AI deserves the same clinical reasoning.

Which of the four feels hardest to uphold in your setting?
#OccupationalTherapy #AIliteracy Photo from one of Pooja's presentations: a large screen shows a slide titled "Ethical Framework for AI in OT" listing Human-Centered AI, Helpful, Factual, and Fair, with a compass image. Pooja stands at the podium below, and audience members are seen from behind. Under the photo, navy text reads "Not blind adoption. Not blanket refusal." and teal text reads "Literacy." by @theotalgorithm

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4 days ago

We tend to think leadership comes with the title. It doesn't.

Many of us lead something: a clinic, a classroom, a team, a program. Even if "leader" isn't in your title.

And it only really becomes leadership when doing the right thing is the inconvenient thing.

One question to sit with this week: where am I holding others to a standard I'm exempting myself from? 💭

From the Ethics Corner of Issue 39 (link in bio).
#OTethics #OccupationalTherapy Teal quote card with a large amber quotation mark. White text: "Ethical leadership is easy when the incentives line up with doing the right thing." Amber text: "It only becomes leadership when they don't." Attributed to Pooja A. Patel, DrOT, OTR/L, BCG, The OT Algorithm, Issue #39. by @theotalgorithm

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5 days ago

There are people using one or two AI tools to get through work and life, and there are people building the systems that power those tools. In between, it feels like there is almost nobody.

That missing middle has a name: applied AI literacy. Not power users, not engineers, but clinicians who can evaluate, verify, translate, and implement AI outputs responsibly inside a real workflow.

OTPs are built for that role. Activity analysis, task breakdown, grading a demand to the person in front of you. Evaluating an AI output is that same reasoning pointed at a different object.

The middle is where safety, context, and accountability get built. If AI is influencing healthcare decisions and expectations, that is the seat OTPs should be taking.

This photo is from a six-hour pre-conference institute at AOTA INSPIRE 2026, teaching exactly that.

Issue 04. Link in bio.

#OccupationalTherapy #AIinOT #OTpractice #AILiteracy #OTeducation Pooja A. Patel and a co-presenter in front of a screen reading Generative AI Immersive Lab Experience, Clinic, Academia and Administration, at AOTA INSPIRE 2026. by @theotalgorithm

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15 days ago

Every time I get comfortable with an AI tool, build a workflow around it, and start depending on it, something moves me off it.

For a while that felt like the problem. Now I think it might be the point. Healthy friction prevents blind dependency.

If we are going to build these tools into clinical workflows, documentation habits, and education systems, then OTPs need to be comfortable switching. Whatever only works inside one platform was never really a skill you had.

What transfers is the reasoning. Knowing what you are asking for, knowing what a sound output looks like, and knowing where your own clinical judgment has to override it.

This photo is from a six-hour pre-conference institute at AOTA INSPIRE 2026.

Issue 06. Link in bio.

#OccupationalTherapy #AIinOT #OTpractice #AILiteracy #OTeducation Pooja A. Patel speaking at a podium, both hands raised mid-gesture, at her AOTA INSPIRE 2026 pre-conference institute. by @theotalgorithm

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17 days ago

If AI platforms are producing healthcare related outputs, we need to be in the training rooms, not playing cleanup after the fact when our patients or clients bring it up.

This photo is from a six-hour pre-conference institute at AOTA INSPIRE 2026, on generative AI across clinic, academia, and administration.

That is what being in the room looks like. Not waiting for a vendor to decide what occupational therapy needs, and not cleaning up after an output that never had a clinician anywhere near its training data.

If you are upset about what these tools produce, get to the root of where the outputs are stemming from. That root is the training data. OTPs belong in that conversation, because nobody else in it is going to raise occupation, context, or function on our behalf.

Issue 03. Link in bio.

#OccupationalTherapy #AIinOT #OTpractice #AILiteracy #AOTAINSPIRE Pooja A. Patel with two co-presenters standing in front of the title slide of their pre-conference institute at AOTA INSPIRE 2026. by @theotalgorithm

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19 days ago

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20 days ago