Our vision is to be a leader in organizing, directing, funding and collaborating on rehabilitative research and supporting the research infrastructure to determine the most cost-effective, efficacious care for individuals with disability, for the purpose of enhancing health, function and quality of life.
Advancing health. Enhancing life.
ANNUAL REPORT
About the Foundation, 1 2011 Board of Directors, 2 Thanks to Our Volunteers, 3 Message from the President, 4 2011 Grants and Awards, 5 Rehab 5K Run/Walk & Roll, 8 Dr. Welch’s Ride for Rehab, 9 In Memoriam: Dr. Gabriella Molnar, 10 Thank You to Our Donors, 11 Major Gi�s, 17 Financial Statements, 18
The Foundation for Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation’s mission is to enhance health, function and quality of lifefor individuals withdisability through education and research in the field of physical medicine and rehabilitation.
The Foundation has identified these key goals:
Goal A: Drive the Evidence Base for Cost-effective, Results-oriented Rehabilitative Care
Goal B: Cultivate the Next Generation of Physiatric Researchers
Goal C: Build Physiatric Research Capacity
Goal D: Promote the Value of Rehabilitative Care
About the Foundation, 1 2011 Board of Directors, 2 Thanks to Our Volunteers, 3 Message from the President, 4 2011 Grants and Awards, 5 Rehab 5K Run/Walk & Roll, 8 Dr. Welch’s Ride for Rehab, 9 In Memoriam: Dr. Gabriella Molnar, 10 Thank You to Our Donors, 11 Major Gi�s, 17 Financial Statements, 18
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Thomas E. Strax, MDPresident
Kristjan T. Ragnarsson, MDVice President
C. George Kevorkian, MDTreasurer
Dexanne Clohan, MDSecretary
Bruce M. Gans, MDPast President
Directors at Large
Randall L. Braddom, MD, MS
Sheila Dugan, MD
Allen W. Heinemann, PhD
Kathy Lewis
Felice Loverso, MD
Barry Smith, MD
Ex Officio
Phyllis J. Anderson, MD, Executive Director
Gail L. Gamble, MD
Tom Stautzenbach, CAE
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The Foundation for PM&R relies upon the efforts of our volunteer Board of Directors, Commi�ee Chairs and members. Thank you to all who dedicated their time and expertise to ourprograms and services in 2011.
Awards and Grants Steering Commi�eeJohn Melvin, MD, Chair; Allen Heinemann, PhD; Barry Smith, MD
Awards and Grants Review Commi�eeDiana Cardenas, MD, Chair; Ma�hew Bartels, MD; Bruce Becker, MD; Michael Boninger, MD; Barbara deLateur, MD; Sheila Dugan, MD: Alberto Esquenazi, MD; Naomi Lynn Gerber, MD; Nathaniel Mayer, MD; Joel Press, MD; Neil Segal, MD; Greg Worsowicz, MD
Development Commi�eeRandall Braddom, MD and Kathy Lewis, MA, Co-Chairs; Dexanne Clohan, MD; C. George Kevorkian, MD; Myron LeBan, MD; David Welch, MD
Finance Commi�eeC. George Kevorkian, MD, Chair; Phyllis Anderson, MA; Felice Loverso, PhD
Friends of the FoundationGail Gamble, MD, Chair; Barbara DeLateur, MD; Naomi Lynn Gerber, MD; Steve Gnatz, MD; John Melvin, MD
Nominating Commi�eeBruce M. Gans, MD, Chair; Michael Boninger, MD; William Micheo, MD; John Whyte, MD
Rehab 5K Task ForceMark Harrast, MD, Chair; Fred Bagares, MD; Peter Esselman, MD; C. George Kevorkian, MD; Alfy Olufade, MD
Research Capacity Building Initiative Task ForceWalter Frontera, MD, Chair; Michael Boninger, MD; Leighton Chan, MD; Rory Cooper, MD; Kenneth O�enbacher, MD; Ellio� Roth, MD
If you are interested in volunteering your time and talent, please contact Phyllis J. Anderson, MA, Executive Director, at (847) 737-6062.
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It was my honor and privilege to take the office of President of the Foundation for PM&R in November, 2011. As the new President, I thank the outgoing President, Thomas Strax, M.D. for his spirited leadership and hard work. I also thank the entire Board of Directors for their engaged involvement, support and generosity, and, of course, all of those who have given to the Foundation in the past year.
The good news is that the Foundation is grow-ing, but the bad news is that it is growing slowly, that it is only supported by donations from less than a quarter of practicing physiat-rists, and that it cannot provide funding for a significant number of high quality and fundable research proposals.
The main purpose of the Foundation for PM&R is to fund research done by physiatrists, espe-cially research done by our young investigators who have limited chances of ge�ing research funding elsewhere. Our hopes are that a recognition of their proposed research by the Foun-dation will encourage them, providing pilot data that make it more feasible to obtain larger grants from federal agencies. Ultimately, their research will provide the scientific foundations which will show that our physiatric interventions are effective and therefore will be reim-bursed by third party payers.
In 2011, there were 24 applications for the Richard Materson (ERF) New Investigator Award and for the Sco� Nadler-PASSOR Musculoskeletal Research Grant. In addition, there were three applications for the Ossur Prosthetic/Orthotic Research Grant, which focuses on clinical research in prosthetics and orthotics. The quality of all proposals was high, and 8 proposals were so outstanding that the reviewers wanted to fund them all. Unfortunately, funding was only available for 4 of these, $10,000 for three and $30,000 for one. In order to provide funding for more of such outstanding research proposals, the Foundation must increase its assets.
Last year, 1800 physiatrists donated to the Foundation, most of them at a $50 level, but almost 300 individuals donated at a higher level. While this is an impressive number, it must be the goal of the Foundation to increase the number of physiatrist donors significantly. In the Amer-ican culture of charitable giving, it should not be asking for too much if each physiatrist would donate at least at the lowest level of $50 annually. Not only are such donations tax deductible, but they are likely to help the practicing physiatrists now and in the future by providing scien-tific evidence for the effectiveness of their interventions and consequently securing third party payments. Please keep this in mind while reading about our accomplishments ...
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Funding physiatric research is the heart of the Foundation for PM&R’s mission, and each year we receive dozens of outstanding applications for our grant awards. We are commi�ed to advancing research that provides the evidence base to support physiatric practice, and seek to increase future funding and expand the number and scope of grants we provide each year for this important work.
Richard Materson ERF New Investigator AwardsOver twenty years ago, while in private practice in Houston, Dr. Richard Materson and his wife Rosa (with a small group of col-leagues) spearheaded the birth of the PM&R Education and Research Fund. This Fund, which was dedicated to supporting physiatric research, eventually became the Foundation for PM&R. A�er his death in 2009, the Foundation named our New Investigator Awards in honor of Dr. Materson. Each Award provides a $10,000 grant to a physiatrist 5 years or less out of residency for a physiatric research project.
2011 Winners
“A Comparison of Neuromuscular Characteristics Between Athletes with Different Levels of Neurocognitive Performance,” Daniel Herman, MD, University of Virginia
“Prescription Opioid Use and Abuse Risk Mitigation: An Investigation of Screening Methods and Risk and
Resiliency Factors,” Brandon Goff, MD, Brooke Army Medical Center
“Cardiovascular Fitness, Cognition, Mood and Function in Community-dwelling People with Traumatic Brain Injury,” Jennifer Devine, MD, University of Washington
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Sco� Nadler PASSOR Musculoskeletal Research AwardSco� Nadler, DO, was a physiatrist with a passion for sports medi-cine and an unrelenting desire for truth and honesty as a clinician and researcher. His special interest was low back pain, and he pro-duced high-quality research in the area of core strengthening. A�er his death in 2004, the Physiatric Association of Spine, Sports and Occupational Rehabilitation (PASSOR) established a research grant in his name. PASSOR entrusted that grant and the endowment that funds it to the Foundation in 2006.
2011 Winner“Clinical Course of Patients with Lumbar Radiculopathy with Motor Deficit,” Venugopal Akuthota , MD, University of Colorado, Denver.
“We are extremely honored to receive this Award for our proposed research on the clinical course of motor deficits in lumbar radiculopa-thy subjects. For those of us who had the privilege of knowing the late Dr. Nadler, we remember the passion and energy he had for promoting evidence-based musculoskeletal physiatry. In that spirit, we strive to provide clinicians evidence on what happens to subjects with mild, non-functional, or stable weakness in lumbar radiculopathy. We hypothesize that these strength deficits improve, regardless of the type of operative or non-operative interventions rendered.”
Ossur Prosthetic/Orthotic Research GrantOssur Americas Inc. provided a grant to the Foundation for PM&R to fund research into applications of prosthetics/orthotics in the field of physical medicine and rehabilitation. The unbiased selection process will be conducted by the Foundation for PM&R Awards and Grant Review Commi�ee with no input from our corporate supporter. The first award was pre-sented on April 14, 2011 at the 2011 AAP Annual Meeting, and later announced at the the 2011 AAPM&R Annual Assembly.
2011 Winner“Short-term and Intermediate Effects of Bracing in Patients with Acute Vertebral Fracturem” Gopi Kasturi, MD, VA Central California Health Care System and the Community Regional Medical Center (CRMC), Fresno, CA
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Rehabilitation Research Experience for Medical Students Since 2008, the Association of Academic Physiatrists (AAP) and the Foundation for PM&R have partnered to offer the Rehabilitation Research Experience for Medical Students (RREMS) grants. This program allows first year medical students to experience the rewards of scholarly research within the specialty of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation through an eight-week summer externship.
2011 WinnersKhushboo Doshi, a student at University of Illinois in Chicago, will be men-tored by Dr. Citlali Lopez-Ortiz and Dr. Elliot Roth at the Rehabilitation In-stitute of Chicago on the study “Dance for motor learning in Children with Cerebral Palsy.”
James Russ, from the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine, will study “Functional neuroimaging of individuals
with TBI with and without excessive daytime sleepiness” at the Rusk Institu-tion of Rehabilitation Medicine – New York University under the men-
torship of Dr. Tamara Bushnik.
Alexander Rascoe, a student at Penn State College of Medi-cine, will be mentored by Dr. Gwendolyn Sowa on the study “Loading effects on Glycosaminoglycan concentration in media bathing a rabbit functional spinal unit – identifying a system specific biomarker” at the University of Pi�sburgh.
Anna Edmiston will remain at the University of Alabama School of Medicine and will study “Psychological and locomotor recovery
following SCI: systematically evaluating the effects of exercise rehabilitation, antidepression therapy, or a combination in a rat model” under the mentor-
ship of Dr. Candace Floyd.
Kelly Joy Valignota from the Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine will be mentored by Dr. Preeti Raghavan at the NYU Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine on the study “Comparing proximal-distal and distal-proximal ef-fects during simultaneous bimanual training to improve motor function post-stroke.”
Jaclyn Barcikowski, a student at University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine will be working at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospi-
tal, Cambridge under the preceptorship of Dr. Jonathan Bean. Her study is entitled “Piloting a new measure of ankle strength and power.”
For the first time, the Foundation forPM&R held two Rehab 5k Run/Walk &Roll events to raise funds for physiatricresearch.
• April 15 (Chandler, AZ) in conjunction with the AAP Annual Meeting
The Rehab 5k Run/Walk & Roll fundraising event during the AAP annual meeting was held on Friday, April 15 on the grounds of the Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort and Spa.
Dr. Mike Saulino of Elkins Park, PA came in 1st at 20:20:00; Dr. Tom Cheffens of Phoenix was 2nd at 20:30:00 and Drs. Vikki Stefans and Mark Goddard tied for third place at 21:00:00.
• November 19 (Orlando, FL) in conjunction with the AAPM&R Annual Assembly
The Rehab 5k Run/Walk & Roll event during the AAPM&R Annual Assembly was held on Saturday, November 19 on the grounds of the Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Cen-ter.
Dr. David Arnold took first place with a time of 19:00 minutes. Dr. David Bozak came in second at 20:41, and Dr. Melissa Abbasinejad (pictured above) came in third overall and first place for women with a time of 20:02. Dr. Stacy McCarty was the second place female at 22:08, and Materson ERF New Investigator winner Dr. Jennifer Devine took third at 23:00. The Foundation’s new president, Dr. Kristjan T. Ragnarsson, came in first place for his age division.
Special thanks to our corporate sponsors, whose support allows the Foundation for PM&R to use all proceeds of the Rehab 5k events for physiatric fundraising: Lead Sponsor - Casa Colina Centers for Rehabilitation; Apex Chiropractic; Foothills Sports Medicine and Physical Therapy; Prince of Peace/Tiger Balm; Subway and Whole Foods.
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Dr. David Welch - AAPM&R Board Member and a long-time supporter of the Foundation - and his wife Mary logged almost 1,500 miles on a 32-day Ride for Rehab.
They faced both snow and 90 degree temperatures, climbs of over 7,000 vertical feet, as well as road closures that sent them off their route. But they were determined to continue on their journey to support rehabilitation research. They ended their tour on July 1 in Paradise (Lodge in Mount Rainier Park.)
You can follow their progress and see photos at h�p://rideforrehab2011.blogspot.com/. Our thanks to Dr. and Mrs. Welch and the many donors who joined him in supporting rehabilitation research by making a donation in his name.
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In October 2011, the pediatric physiatry community lost one of its leaders - Dr. Gabriella Molnar-Swafford. The Foundation for Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (PM&R) and the Pediatric Council of the American Academy of PM&R (AAPM&R) created a named fund to recognize and honor the worldwide contributions of Dr. Molnar-Swafford. Our goal is to continue her work through an annual pediatric PM&R research and leadership grant.
The first major contribution to the Gabriella Molnar-Swafford Fund came from Mr. Jack Swafford, Dr. Molnar-Swafford’s widower. Mr. Swafford donated $100,000 in his wife’s memory.
The purpose of the fund is to:• Encourage young investigators in the field of pediatric PM&R research;• Promote the value of pediatric PM&R research;• Provide research support in a grossly underfunded area;• Encourage development of PM&R treatments to improve the lives of children with
disability.• Recognize Dr. Molnar-Swafford’s leadership and innovation in the field of pediatric
PM&R through an annual award to a leader in the field.
Members of the AAPM&R Pediatric Council have pledged over $35,000 to start the fund in Dr. Molnar-Swafford’s memory, with the goal of raising enough money to fund an annual pediatric rehabilitation research grant and leadership award. The First Gabriella Molnar Pediatric PM&R Research Grant will be offered in 2012. Mr. Swafford will present the Award at the AAPM&R Annual Assembly in Atlanta.
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