2012 Archives

We are pleased to announce that the Emory DPT students have won Honorable Mention in the Pittsburgh – Marquette Challenge. They raised a total of $5,860.21 in this year’s Challenge.

The grand total will be announced at the Foundation’s Legacy Gala at the Tampa Marriott Waterside in Tampa, FL on Thursday, June 7. Students will be recognized during APTA’s Honors & Awards Celebration that begins at 6:00pm in the Florida Ballroom.

On May 14, 2012, the Emory DPT Program graduated the DPT Class of 2012. The Emory University graduation ceremony was held on the quad where internationally renowned neurosurgeon and humanitarian, Dr. Benjamin S. Carson delivered the keynote address. The Emory Doctor of Physical Therapy Program ceremony followed, and commencement speaker Dr. Anthony Delitto, Professor and Chair Department of Physical Therapy and Associate Dean of Research School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh encouraged the new grads with words of wisdom as they move forward to begin their careers as physical therapists. The DPT ceremony took place in the Woodruff Health Sciences Center Auditorium, and a reception for students and their families, faculty and staff of the Division was held afterward on the plaza level.

The 2012 Student Marshall was Amy Kathryn DeArment and the Class Speaker was Robert Bell Morris. Please see the list below of students from the DPT Class of 2012.

Congratulations to all the 2012 Graduates!

The Division of Physical Therapy faculty, students and staff welcome the DPT Class of 2015. This diverse class includes 66 students, 80% of which are from outside Georgia and 20% are males. They are represented by 50 Universities and 25 majors.

For two weekends in June, students from the 2nd year DPT class volunteered their time with the South Georgia Farmworker Health Project in Bainbridge and Valdosta, Georgia. Faculty members Sara Pullen, Kathleen Geist and Tami Phillips, Professor Emeritus Susan Freed and eight alumni served as mentors and clinical instructors to the students.

This project was established in 1996 when Emory physician assistant and medical students first took a caravan of cars down to southern Georgia to provide medical care to the workers who labor in the corn and bell pepper fields. The Farmworker project consists of traveling clinics, setting up each day at a new worker camp or mobile home community to attend to needs of this vastly underserved population.

Physical therapy students work with trained physical therapists to evaluate and treat farmworkers for common injuries such as low back pain, knee and shoulder injuries. In addition, students conduct a “back class” on proper body mechanics for lifting, throwing and catching heavy boxes of farm produce. Clinics start early in the morning and run as late as midnight, with the clinic sites changing daily based on local needs. One group of students summarized their experience saying “We met wonderful people, and most importantly made an impact in the farmworkers’ lives; providing them care they were very unlikely to have access to otherwise.”

This marks the Emory DPT program’s fifth year of involvement with the Farmworker Project and we hope that the program will continue to grow in years to come. Working with an underserved population is an invaluable opportunity for any healthcare provider, and we are fortunate to work with such a skilled and dedicated group of PAs, MDs, and volunteers.

Drs. Trumbower and Ting were awarded a grant through the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience (see announcement). This award is for $50,000 a year (for up to two years) to support collaborative research on locomotor muscle coordination in persons with incomplete spinal cord injury.

Please see Georgia Tech IBB news posting and Dr Trumbower’s InspirLab website for more details.

“Wah gwaan mi friends?” (What is going on my friends?) was a common Patois refrain heard by the Emory DPT contingent that traveled in March to Ridge, Jamaica.  Unlike coastal beach towns for which Jamaica is famous, this rural community is located in the beautiful mountains of St. Elizabeth Parish.  Known as “the breadbasket of Jamaica”, this vast area has a population of approximately 150,000 persons, but is lacking in medical care that can be found in larger cities.  The trip was a service component of an Advanced Neurorehabilitation elective taught by Dr. Tami Phillips.  Joining Dr. Phillips as clinical instructors for 8 students were alumni, Dr. Anna Fidler Stromquist (’09), Dr. Brian Maloney (’11) and Dr. Sarah Caston (’11).

The students spent a week working at a clinic that has been operated by an American, Dr. Brooke Riley, since the Fall of 2004.  An Arcadia University graduate, Dr. Riley felt a personal calling to provide physical therapy in this underserved area, where there are only 2 other PTs.  Dr. Riley is assisted in her efforts by volunteers that arrive periodically for a week or two at a time.  For the past 2 years, she has had the good fortune to have Dr. Jennie Brennan, another Arcadia alumnus, volunteer her time and talent.

Hypertension is a common and poorly managed healthcare issue in the West Indies.  As a result, there are many individuals of all ages who have survived having a stroke.  In an attempt to provide intensive physical therapy for her clients, Dr. Riley has partnered with Arcadia University, Washington University, and now Emory University to offer “stroke camps.”  The week-long “stroke camp” is an opportunity for 8-10 stroke survivors to participate in 5 full days of PT services including therapeutic exercise, gait and balance training, and interventions for the upper extremities.  Students work with their clinical instructors to design an individualized plan of care based on the results of outcome measures collected the first morning.  These same measures are repeated on the last day of the camp to document individual progress.  Treatment sessions may be conducted individually, in pairs, or in small groups.

The camaraderie between the clients, students, and therapists was evident from the first day.  The week passed all too quickly and when it was time to say good-bye, more had been accomplished than just therapy.  Visible was the demonstration of mutual respect and improved understanding of 2 very different cultures, along with a newfound admiration not only for the dedication of the physical therapy team, but the perseverance and positive outlook of the Jamaican people.

Welcome Back DPT Class of 2013! The Class of 2013 was welcomed back with enthusiasm and excitement at a “cook-out” styled celebration as they returned from their long-term clinical rotations. These students return after having completed three (3) ten-week clinical rotations in an acute care setting, a rehabilitation setting and a community setting. The students come back in their 3rd and final year of the program where they will take elective courses and do research projects with a faculty mentor.

The celebration is held to welcome the students back to campus as they head toward completion of their pursuit of becoming Doctors of Physical Therapy.

The Emory DPT Program is proud to announce that two Emory alums, Meg Jacobs, ’09DPT and Jeff Ryg, ’06DPT have made the list of 21 physical therapists chosen by APTA as “Emerging Leaders” of our profession.

Our mission states “The Division of Physical Therapy is committed to the development of pro-active, ethically-engaged, caring leadership….”

Thus, we can all be proud and celebrate this recognition of our alums as an indication, among others, of how we are accomplishing this mission.

The latest edition of alumni newsletter, Extension, is now available here.

Dr. Trisha Kesar was awarded a research grant award by the American Heart Association (AHA). Dr. Kesar is the recipient of a Scientist Development Grant, which provides $77000 per year of funding for 4-years. As part of this grant, Dr. Kesar will characterize the time course of biomechanical and neural processes underlying post-stroke gait rehabilitation.

Dr. Kesar’s research project will use a novel post-stroke gait retraining intervention (combining fast treadmill ambulation and functional electrical stimulation) to test fundamental yet hitherto unaddressed hypotheses pertaining to time course of changes during post-stroke gait retraining. The innovation of this proposal is the concurrent evaluation of biomechanical (e.g. paretic propulsion, swing phase knee flexion), neuroplasticity (TMS-derived measures of corticomotor excitability), and functional (walking speed and endurance) processes influencing gait throughout a 6-week gait retraining program. Insights into time courses and neural mechanisms underlying post-stroke gait rehabilitation can impact clinical practice by aiding with the development of effective, individualized strategies to maximize the benefits of gait rehabilitation.

The Emory Doctor of Physical Therapy Program is pleased to announce that Dr. Marie Johanson has been promoted to the rank of Associate Professor, effective September 1, 2012.

This promotion signifies the national recognition that Marie has achieved among her peers through her outstanding contributions in teaching, scholarship and service.

This promotion is also recognition of the stature of our program, department and its faculty within the Emory School of Medicine.

We extend our heartiest congratulations to Marie as we celebrate with her this well-deserved accomplishment.

During the week of March 11-17th, eight students accompanied Dr. Sara Pullen and Dr. Durga Shah to San Francisco de Macoris, Dominican Republic. This first-time Service Learning trip consisted of daily workshops for local medical personnel on a variety of topics pertaining to physical therapy (orthopedic and neurological trauma, neurological rehabilitation for stroke and spinal cord injury, pediatric and NICU interventions, and women’s health), home visits and learning about the culture and history of the Dominican Republic. All week, students worked diligently from sunup until late into the evening and learned an immeasurable amount about providing physical therapy and public health interventions in a developing country with little to no resources. We formed lasting partnerships and collaborations with Dominican partners, with mutual cross-cultural dialogue and learning throughout the week. The yearly Dominican Republic trip promises to be an essential part of the Emory DPT Service Learning program.

The article The EXCITE Trial: Analysis of “Noncompleted” Wolf Motor Function Test Items appears in Volume 26 Issue 2 February 2012 pp. 178 – 187 of the journal Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair, the highest impact journal in neurorehabilitation in the world.  2011 Emory DPT graduates Timothy Lonergan, Emily Estes, Rozina Merchant and Natasha Richardson participated in the project guided by senior author and associate faculty member Steve Wolf. The article addressed a specific outcome measure, the Wolf Motor Function Test (WMFT), for the EXtremity Constraint Induced Movement  Evaluation (EXCITE) Trial and specifically the number of timed tasks that could NOT be completed following the delivery of constraint induced movement therapy (CIMT) compared to a usual and customary care group. The sample size included 222 participants, 3-9 months post-stroke, located at 8 sites throughout the country. This paper addressed changes in completed WMFT tasks before and after a two week period over which CIMT was provided to the immediate group (CIMT-I). This group showed a highly statistically significant increase in the number of tasks that could be completed following CIMT. Moreover the greatest improvements occurred in performance of the more complex, multi-joint tasks. A preliminary evaluation of the kinematics underlying all these tasks led to the suggestion that perhaps more time should be spent in carefully engaging in task training that necessitate greater active range of motion in more proximal joints.

Having just finished their Anatomy course, the first year Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) students, held a Service of Gratitude to honor the gift of cadavers they received to pursue their studies in anatomy. This non-denominational service was held at Emory’s Canon Chapel and attended by the DPT Program faculty and students along with families and friends of the students.

The students gave speeches, sang songs as well as performed instrumentals and gave tribute to people who decided to donate their bodies to research as an offering of their gratitude. On behalf of the faculty, Dr. Zoher Kapasi, course director for anatomy and Director of the DPT Program, spoke at the service. Reverend Susan Henry-Crowe, Dean of Chapel & Religion, led the service. In addition to giving opening remarks, following a lighting of candles and laying of flowers, Dr. Henry-Crowe concluded with closing reflections.

The Service of Gratitude is held every year at the end of the Anatomy course and is organized by the students. The service reinforces the values of caring and giving within our DPT students as they proceed in their training to become Doctors of Physical Therapy.

The fifth annual White Coat Ceremony was held on Saturday, September 8, 2012 in the sanctuary at Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church on the Emory University campus. The ceremony marks the students’ transition from the study of preclinical to clinical health sciences and also initiates them in physical therapy ethics.

Dr. David T. Burke, Professor and Chair, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine opened the program with welcoming remarks. Ms. Cheryl F. Wardlaw, the Manager of Rehabilitation Therapy at Emory University Hospital and a Faculty member with the Institute of Physical Art gave the Keynote Address. The presentation of the White Coats to the Division of Physical Therapy Class of 2015 was led by Dr. Zoher Kapasi, Associate Professor and Director, Division of Physical Therapy, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine. This year’s ceremony set a new precedent with the participation of significant others bestowing the students with their White Coats. Both students and guest agreed family and friends participation added a deeper level of delight, excitement and ownership to the ceremony.

At the conclusion of the ceremony, Dr. Zoher Kapasi led the students in a recitation of the APTA “Code of Ethics.” A reception followed the ceremony in the atrium of the Math and Science Building for faculty, students and family who attended the event. The officers from the DPT II class assisted during the ceremony and attended the reception to congratulate the DPT I students.