Medical Personnel
The Role of the Physiatrist in Brain Injury Rehabilitation
Last Updated:
The rehabilitation of persons with BI (brain injury) has progressed remarkably over the past two decades. These improvements have been developed by a collaborative group of professionals that have lent innovation and critical input to the framework of care for persons with brain injury. The physiatrist has been a key part of the dynamic improvements noted throughout the entire spectrum of brain injury care.
The role of the physiatrist spans from the acute care setting to the community. Physiatrists have developed rehabilitation programs that intervene in the ICU as well as interceded to treat persons with mild BI. Physiatrists are actively involved in research programs, setting and establishing clinical care, evaluating biological markers of injury, evaluating outcomes and treating social and community related concerns. They have helped to establish therapy paradigms, evaluate rehabilitation needs and determine the efficacy (effectiveness) of the potential therapies. Physiatrists have designed guidelines for the use of anticonvulsants for prophylaxis(prevention (in this case, of seizure)and helped lead the field of spasticity management. Those in the field of rehabilitation medicine have helped to begin research programs focusing on the pharmacotherapy (use of medications to facilitate) recovery after BI. They have collaborated with other specialties to establish guidelines for the minimally conscious state and develop criteria for those with mild injury.
During the acute rehabilitation stage the BI physiatrist helps to lead a rehabilitation team in coordinating the patient’s care, designing paradigms to deal with motor and cognitive impairments and monitoring for medical dysfunction. In the post acute setting physiatrist’s help to deal with numerous continued neuromedical complaints, they assist in monitoring headaches, muscloskeletal disorders, sensory dysfunction, and posttraumatic cognitive dysfunction.
In summary physiatrists play a key role among those with severe, moderate and mild brain injury. They assist in the care of such persons from coma to the community and serves as bridge link in helping to facilitate functional recovery.
Dr. Ross D. Zafonte is Professor and Chairman in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Dr. Zafonte completed his residency in 1989 from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and his research training from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation. He is Board certified by the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and the American Board of Electrodiagnostic Medicine. He has published extensively on traumatic brain injuries, spasticity, and other neurologic disorders, as well as presented on these topics at conferences nationally and internationally. He also serves as principal investigator on the University of Pittsburgh NIDRR TBI Model System and NIH clinical trials grants. In addition he is an associate editor for the Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation. He has received numerous awards such as “Best Doctor in America” and “Top Doctors” and been invited as visiting professor to several prestigious institutions.