Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 

William Pease, MD, Chair

 

Dodd Hall, the Rehabilitation Center for Ohio State University Medical Center, also houses the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, which includes a Division of Rehabilitation Psychology and a Division of Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine that is located at Columbus Children’s Hospital. Dodd Hall admitted 1,045 patients in 2006. The inpatient service is accredited by the Commission on the Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF), with specialty accreditation in rehabilitation of stroke, spinal cord injury and brain injury. The Traumatic Brain Injury Network, an outpatient program specializing in the treatment of brain-injured patients with substance abuse problems, is also accredited by CARF. The Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation residency program, directed by Daniel Clinchot, MD, is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education for six positions each year. More than 230 graduates of the program are serving throughout the United States, Japan and Puerto Rico.

 

Ongoing Research Programs

 

  • The Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Model System Program is part of a national network and database for brain injury treatment funded by the U.S. Department of Education, and W. Jerry Mysiw, MD, chairs the Health Committee for the national program. Research in brain injury also includes behavior and community reintegration and the impact of substance abuse on outcome. A special study of veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars is under way in collaboration with Walter Reed Medical Center.
  • The Osteoporosis Prevention and Treatment Center is studying new treatments for bone weakness, as well as the effect of osteoporosis as a complication of disabling illnesses.
  • Areas of spinal cord injury (SCI) research emphasis include both the prevention and treatment of complications of SCI, including recovery of walking.
  • Predictors of disability caused by knee osteoarthritis are being studied through the National Institutes of Health-funded Osteoarthritis Initiative (OAI).
  • A database is being created from the Ohio-Indiana Veterans’ Amputation Project in conjunction with Ohio State’s School of Allied Medical Professions and Indiana University.

 Research Accomplishments of 2006

 

  • In the Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems, Ohio State is one of the most productive recruitment and follow-up sites among the 16 centers funded nationwide. John Corrigan, PhD, chairs the Model Systems Program Executive Committee.
  • The National Institutes of Health-funded multicenter clinical trial examining the effect of bodyweight supported treadmill training on recovery of ambulation following spinal cord injury completed subject enrollment under the direction of Lisa Fugate, MD, at the Ohio State site. This novel therapy is an important transfer of recent neuroscience research in activity-dependent plasticity to recovery of function in humans following trauma. More clinical trials are planned.
  • The Ohio State University site for the Osteoarthritis Initiative (OAI) completed its recruitment objectives in 2006 and represents the largest contributor of subjects for the five-year longitudinal study of knee osteoarthritis.
  • A recent study by Sharon McDowell, MD, has documented outcomes of rehabilitation of patients after brain tumor treatment.  

http://medicalcenter.osu.edu/research/department/physical_medicine_rehabilitation/index.cfm