Providing medical care to this nation's estimated 40 million physically disabled citizens is a responsibility that often falls to the physiatrist, a physician specializing in the field of physical medicine and rehabilitation. One of medicine's youngest specialties, physiatry combines a broad spectrum of diagnostic and therapeutic skills. Patients commonly seen by physiatrists include children and adults who have disabilities such as amputation; arthritis; fractures; hemiplegia, paraplegia, and quadriplegia; pulmonary, neuromuscular, and vascular diseases; sports injuries; and other less disabling conditions. The goal of physical medicine and rehabilitation is to assist disabled patients in achieving their maximum physical, psychosocial, and vocational potential. Comprehensive rehabilitation frequently involves integration of medical and surgical care with a program that may include religious and vocational counseling; patient and family education; rehabilitation nursing; therapeutic recreation; psychosocial services; and occupational, physical, and speech therapy. Moreover, care of an individual with a disability requires sensitivity, compassion, and respect. Various levels of care and locations for treatment of outpatients and inpatients are offered. Northwestern McGaw offers a program of interdisciplinary studies centered at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC), with associations at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Jesse Brown VA Medical Center, Children's Memorial Hospital, Evanston Northwestern Healthcare, Illinois Masonic Medical Center, and Alexian Brothers Medical Center. RIC has been designated by the U.S. Department of Education as a Rehabilitation Research and Training Center in Stroke and as a Midwest Regional Spinal Cord Injury Care System. RIC is a national resource for education of rehabilitation specialists and for research into the rehabilitation needs of people with severe disabilities. It houses RIC's Searle Rehabilitation Research Center, Center for Rehabilitation Outcomes Research, Sensory-Motor Performance Program and Northwestern University's Prosthetic-Orthotic Center and Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center. RIC is dedicated to excellence in research, education, and providing comprehensive care programs to the physically disabled. A private, nonprofit, freestanding facility, RIC shares with Northwestern University the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research designation of Rehabilitation Research and Training Center for enhancing the quality of life for stroke survivors. RIC is recognized nationally for its research, educational programs, and high-quality patient care. Specialty certification by the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation requires four years of postgraduate medical education with one year of broad-based clinical experience and three years of specialty preparation. The first year at Northwestern includes four months of internal medicine, three months of neurology, one month each of emergency medicine and intensive care, and three months of adult rehabilitation. Applicants who complete a year of residency in family practice, pediatrics, or internal medicine or a flexible internship elsewhere are eligible for the three-year specialty portion of the program. The program prepares residents for a career in an academic setting or private practice. The specialty portion consists of required rotations in adult and pediatric inpatient rehabilitation, community hospital rehabilitation, consultation, electrodiagnostic procedures, outpatient care, pain management, and sports medicine. Several months are available for electives that can be designed to fulfill the needs and special interests of individual residents. Residents are involved in weekly clinics with ongoing outpatient management, including evaluating and treating acute and chronic pain syndromes. The structured didactic component includes electromyography, functional anatomy, kinesiology and biomechanics, neurosciences, pharmacology, physical medicine modalities, physiology, psychology of disability, research design, sports medicine, and other basic and clinical science topics. Scholarly activity is required in the form of a research project, case report, or literature review. Residents may participate in ongoing faculty research or develop individual projects with faculty members. Collaboration, communication skills, and management experience are emphasized. Residents must take the yearly self-assessment examination designed by the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Preceptors provide feedback on residents' performance on each rotation.
Former residents have performed exceptionally well on the specialty board examinations, reflecting the overall quality of their experience and preparation. The faculty includes 43 full-time physiatrists as well as specialists and scientists in anesthesiology, internal medicine, neurology, orthopaedic surgery, pediatrics, and physiology. The clinical and research interests of department faculty members include amputation, arthritis, brain trauma, cancer, electrophysiology, motor control and spasticity, muscle disease, pain, prosthetics, spinal cord injury, stroke, and vascular disease. Specialty preparation takes place at RIC and several of its off-site facilities. The institute has an inpatient capacity of 155 beds and serves an average of 200 outpatients daily. The staff includes a comprehensive complement of allied health professionals, including chaplains, occupational therapists, orthotists, physical therapists, prosthetists, psychologists, rehabilitation engineers, social workers, speech pathologists, therapeutic recreation specialists, and vocational rehabilitation counselors. Consulting physicians are available in every major medical and surgical specialty. Rotations also take place at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Jesse Brown VA Medical Center, Evanston Northwestern Healthcare, Alexian Brothers Medical Center, and Swedish Covenant Hospital and Medical Center. A limited number of positions are available for the three- and four-year programs. Candidates may apply to enter the four-year program immediately after medical school or the three-year specialty program after a year of broad-based instruction elsewhere. Residents with previous postgraduate education also may apply to the three-year program. After all application materials have been received and reviewed, selected applicants are invited for interviews. The deadline for receipt of the completed application is October 31. Elliot J. Roth, MD
Paul B. Magnuson Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation James A. Sliwa, DO
Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Regenstein Director of Physician Education For more information, contact the Office of Medical Education, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, 345 East Superior Street, Chicago, Illinois 60611-2654, 312/238-2870; fax 312/238-1219 or visit the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Web site.
E-mail: r-bailey@northwestern.edu
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Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation