Program Overview
Our residents have the unique inpatient experience of caring for patients at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital (SRH), one of the largest freestanding rehabilitation hospitals in the United States. Spaulding offers a solid representation of the core rehabilitation patient populations, including traumatic brain injury (TBI), spinal cord injury (SCI), cerebrovascular accidents (CVA), amputee, pain management, pediatrics, and postoperative orthopedics. All units are designed to be homogenous by diagnosis, and are staffed by physicians with focused interests in these areas of disability.
Download program report: 2006/2007 Spaulding PM&R (PDF: 1.7 MB)
The core didactic curriculum includes a 15-month repeating lecture series to cover all aspects of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R). Topics include anatomy, kinesiology, cancer rehabilitation, nerve and muscle disorders, musculoskeletal and sports medicine, occupational medicine, electrodiagnostics, spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury, stroke, pediatric rehabilitation, geriatrics, orthotics/prosthetics, physical modalities, and the business aspects of a PM&R practice. The lecturers, who have a special interest in these varied lecture topics, are chosen for their renowned expertise, many of whom are based at our Harvard Medical School teaching hospitals.
(More about rotations)Research Requirements
Residents are required to perform research during their residency. Under the mentorship of our department faculty, residents must submit at least two papers and/or posters to a PM&R related scientific meeting. The most common forums are the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (AAPM&R) and the Association of Academic Physiatrists (AAP). In addition, residents are required to submit for publication at least one paper to a peer reviewed journal. The department's Center for Rehabilitation Science contains state-of-the-art equipment to measure joint and limb segment kinematics and kinetics, equipment to measure oxygen consumption, sophisticated computer programs to model activity, and specific equipment to assess muscle cell anatomy and function. A unique aspect of the center is that the laboratories are not only patient oriented and clinically accessible, but are also adjacent to the PM&R Attending and Resident Physician Offices.
Historically, research in the center has been focused on:
| • | Evaluation techniques | | | • | Specific gait patterns and muscle cell function | | | • | Quantitative effects of disability, aging, and exercise. | |
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A unifying aim of the Center for Rehabilitation Science is to define the complex relationships between impairment, functional limitation and disability, in order to enhance and validate our rehabilitation treatment programs.
Call Schedule
During the call period, residents are responsible for emergency and routine care of all patients on the PM&R inpatient services at SRH. Residents are on call at SRH approximately every sixth night during the PGY-2 year (about 5 calls/month = 4weeknights and one weekend 24-hour period per month). During the PGY-3 year, call is taken approximately 20 times per resident. Residents do not take call during their PGY-4 year. When rotating at some outside hospitals, call may be taken there in lieu of SRH call. During the PGY-2 year, residents on the neurology rotation at MGH assume call every fourth night and do not take SRH call. The call schedule for residents at SRH falls well within the limits required by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.
Other Curriculum Offerings
In addition to the core curriculum, the residency provides patient care conferences, one-on-one didactics with attending physicians, and grand rounds as opportunities for further education. Also, there are weekly chief's rounds with our department chairman, and a weekly morning report where cases are discussed with our program director. A monthly journal club reviews current and classical literature. Residents serve as members on the editorial board of the surveillance journal "Rehab in Review," a Harvard-based publication which is nationally distributed.
Our residents also enjoy a rich variety of outpatient experiences with physiatrists and related specialists rotating at surrounding Harvard teaching hospitals and clinics.
One of the highlights of our program is a very generous elective schedule (eight months) that allows time to develop areas of interest.