Benjamin Abramoff, MD, MS was a 2019 Bach Fund awardee within Penn Medicine for his project, “Peer mentorship and virtual support group for Individuals with spinal cord injury and other traumatic injuries.” This award is funded by Penn Presbyterian Medical Center and was created by the Estate of Jeanette Bach Tashjian. He was also the winner of the best poster award for “Swimming and cardiovascular fitness in spinal cord injury: a 6-week exercise training program”, for research performed by a trainee, resident or fellow, at the Academy of Spinal Cord Professional Educational Conference and Expo in Nashville, TN in September 2019. This project was performed during his spinal cord injury fellowship at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Chicago, IL during the 2017-2018 academic year. Dr. Abramoff joined the Penn PM&R faculty in 2018 as an assistant professor in the academic clinician track, and he is the lead physiatrist for the spinal cord injury program at the Penn Institute for Rehabilitation Medicine based at Penn Medicine Rittenhouse.
Franklin E. Caldera, DO, MBA, Chief Medical Officer at the Penn Institute for Rehabilitation Medicine, and Associate Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in the academic clinician track, was appointed to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Department of Health’s Spinal Cord Research Advisory Committee for which research priorities, procedural accountability, and funding eligibilities are defined for spinal cord injured individuals who reside in Pennsylvania. (Dr. Benjamin Abramoff is also a member of this committee). Moreover, Dr. Caldera was recently appointed Vice Chair of Inclusion and Diversity for Penn PM&R as part of Penn Medicine’s expanded diversity and inclusion initiative.
Timothy Dillingham, MD, MS Penn PM&R Chair, and Liliana Pezzin, PhD, JD, Penn PM&R research collaborator and Professor of Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin, were awarded a R01 from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Aging, entitled: “Evaluating the effects of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) episode-based “bundling” model for lower limb joint replacement: post-acute care settings, costs and patient outcomes.” This investigation is evaluating the full scope of the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement programs as developed by the CMS whereby bundled reimbursements are being operationalized to pay for acute and post-acute care of persons having lower limb joint arthroplasties. Bundling reimbursement strategies provide incentives to limit discharge to post-acute hospital-level inpatient rehabilitation facilities by substituting less expensive treatment settings such as skilled nursing facilities, home and outpatient care. The question, then, is raised as to whether such short-term cost-savings will result in poorer outcomes such as surgery-related complications and hospital re-admissions that may induce longer term expenses, as well as a higher-than-expected mortality rate.
Kelly M. Heath, MD was appointed the medical director of the Polytrauma Network Site (PNS) for the Veterans Integrated Network (VISN)-4 based at the Michael J. Crescenz Veterans Affairs Medical in Philadelphia. The PNS is one of 23 regional programs within Veterans Health Affairs’ Polytrauma System of Care, focusing on the assessment and treatment of traumatic brain injuries that occur commonly with concurrently presenting chronic pain syndromes and psychiatric conditions such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. This Philadelphia-based PNS serves as the clinical, educational and administrative consultants for eight other polytrauma teams across VISN-4 located in Pennsylvania (Altoona, Butler, Coatesville, Erie, Lebanon, Pittsburgh, Wilkes Barre), and Delaware (Wilmington). Dr. Heath joined the Penn PM&R faculty in 2014 as an Assistant Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in the academic clinician track. She also is the director of Penn PM&R’s Brain Injury Medicine fellowship program.
Ashlee M. Jaffe, MD, MEd was the recipient of a 2019 Good Catch Award by the American Data Network for her leadership of the Harm Prevention Falls Team at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). This award recognizes the promotion of patient safety by empowering professional staff members to speak up in order to prevent medical errors. Dr. Jaffe is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine, and the Director of Education for the Division of Rehabilitation Medicine at CHOP. She has been instrumental in the redevelopment of the Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine fellowship subspecialty program that is recruiting for July 2021.
Michelle J. Johnson, PhD was the recipient of the 2019 Dr. Gloria Twine Chisum Award for Distinguished Faculty. This was awarded by the James Brister Society, Penn alumni who are dedicated to promoting cultural diversity. Dr. Gloria Twine Chisum was the first African American woman to join the Board of Trustees at Penn, and taught psychology between at Penn 1958 and 1968. Her research career focused on visual processing and optical advancements for airplane pilots within the Naval Air Development Center between 1965 and 1980. Moreover, Dr. Johnson is the recipient of the 2019-2020 Fulbright U.S. Scholar award for her proposed project: “Toward increasing access to rehabilitation in Botswana: feasibility of using an affordable robot to study motor and cognitive impairment after HIV and stroke.” Dr. Johnson is an associate professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and Bioengineering, in the tenure track, having been promoted to this rank earlier during 2020, and she directs Penn PM&R’s Rehabilitation Robotics Research Lab.
Keith M. Robinson, MD Chief of Rehabilitation at the Corporal Michael J. Cresencz Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Associate Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in the clinician educator track, and Vice Chair for Faculty Affairs and Professional Development in Penn PM&R, was recognized for his thirty years of service on the Penn Medicine faculty, having started in July 1989. Additionally, Dr. Robinson’s evolving duties include serving a three-year term on Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine (PSOM) Committee on Admissions. Both Dr. Robinson and Dr. Kelly Heath continue to participate as faculty interviewers for premedical students who are seeking admission to PSOM’s first year class.
Randel L. Swanson II, DO, PhD, and Stephen Hampton, MD have become co-authors on another manuscript published as an original investigation in JAMA that elaborated the advanced multimodal neuroimaging (diffusion tensor imaging, functional magnetic imaging) findings of forty United States’ state department personnel who were exposed to a directional phenomenon in Havana, Cuba between December 2016 and May 2018. The exposed individuals presented clinically with concussion-like syndromes. They demonstrated significant structural imaging differences in whole white matter volume, in regional white and grey matter volumes, and in microstructures of the cerebellum and in the visuospatial and auditory neural networks, when compared to demographically healthy individuals. It is strongly inferred that these structural findings could explain the clinical symptoms that predominated among these individuals including difficulties with concentration and memory, vestibular, and oculomotor dysfunctions. This project was based in Penn Neurosurgery’s Center for Brain Injury and Repair. For more details: Verma, R., Swanson, R.L., Parker, D., Ismail, A.A.O., Shinohara, R.T., Alappatt, J.A., Doshi, J., Davatzikos, C., Gallaway, M., Duda, D., Chen, I., Kin, J.J., Gur, R.C., Wolf, R.L., Grady, M.S., Hampton, S., Diaz-Arrastia, R., Smith, D.H. “Neuroimaging findings in US government personnel with possible exposure to directional phenomena in Havana, Cuba. JAMA 2019;322:336-347.
Bradley Tucker, MD has become subspecialty board certified by the American Board of Electrodiagnostic Medicine. Moreover, he has been appointed as the medical director of the Polytrauma Amputee Site (PANS) for the Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN)-4 based at the Corporal Michael J. Cresencz Veterans Medical Center (CMC VAMC). Dr. Tucker joined the Penn PM&R faculty in 2015 as an assistant professor in the academic clinician track. His current clinical practice is divided between the CMC VAMC where he directs the amputation program and performs electrodiagnostic studies, and at Penn Medicine University City where he also performs electrodiagnostic studies.
Flavia Vitale, PhD, Assistant Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Neurology in the tenure track, is the 2020 recipient of Linda Penchenik Montague Award, identifying her as the most promising mid-career faculty member at Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine. Developed nine years ago by philanthropist Linda Penchenik Montague, this was directly awarded to Dr. Vitale by J. Larry Jameson, MD PhD, Executive Vice-President of Penn Medicine and Dean of the Perelman School of Medicine, and Jonathon A. Epstein MD, Executive Vice-Dean and Chief Scientific Officer for Penn Medicine. Dr. Vitale’s innovative research program encompasses applications of nanotechnologies to record and modulate brain activity, by developing multimodal microsensors to study single-cell chemical and electrical signaling in neurons. These single cell observations provide data to develop, test and produce novel and targeted treatments for such neurological disorders as Parkinson disease, epilepsy, and chronic neuropathic pain. Dr. Vitale’s recent research funding stream includes a one-year sponsored research agreement from Murata Manufacturing Company Limited, an international leader in the production of electronic components. This agreement will support her collaborative development of the MXene bioelectrode technology to advance monitoring of central and peripheral neurons, muscle cells and myocardial cells. Dr. Vitale is a biomedical and chemical engineer who joined Penn PM&R and Penn Neurology in 2017. Her training as an engineer occurred in Rome, Italy, and her post-doctoral training included a collaboration at Penn Neurology’s Litt Lab within the Center for Neuroengineering and Therapeutics. Currently, her research program is based at the Singh Center for Nanotechnology at Penn’s School of Applied Science and Engineering, and at the Center for Neurotrauma, Neurodevelopment and Restoration at the Corporal Michael J. Crescenz Veterans Affairs Medical Center.