Miriam Gross is a senior physical therapist at Rusk. Her focus is on early mobility with patients in the ICU, following rotations in the adult outpatient and acute rehabilitation units. She works primarily in the Medical Intensive Care Unit while providing support to the Surgical Intensive Care unit. She has participated in NYU’s Dr. Radio program and has published in Advance for Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation regarding physical therapy interventions following total knee replacements. She also has presented at the APTA’s Combined Sections Meeting. She lectures physical therapy student interns and has been the lab instructor for the Examination and Intervention of the cardiopulmonary systems courses. Her doctorate in physical therapy is from the NYU Steinhardt School and she received her board certification in neurologic physical therapy through the American Physical Therapy Association. In this interview, Miriam discusses the importance of early mobilization, physical therapy interventions following knee replacement surgery, and coordination of care between inpatient and community settings.
David Biderman has worked with individuals with brain injuries and their families for almost 25 years. He is the supervisor of the Brain Injury Day Treatment Program at Rusk Rehabilitation. He has performed research on the benefits of significant others’ participation during the rehabilitation process and has presented internationally, nationally and in local community forums on this important topic. He also is working on ways to assess quality of life as an outcome measure for patients, updating cognitive training software for individuals with a brain injury to help restore or improve attention and concentration functioning, and trying to develop an app for brain-injured individuals to help manage their appointments at Rusk as well as help them work around various other brain injury based problems. In this interview, David discusses his work in an intensive day care program for brain injury patients, along with his involvement in updating cognitive training software for individuals with a brain injury and trying to develop an app for patients to help manage their appointments at Rusk and increase their ability to deal with various brain injury problems.
Wei Angela Liu, MD is a Clinical Assistant Professor at Rusk Rehabilitation. A former Chief Resident at Rusk, Dr. Liu received her B.A. degree in Biochemistry at Columbia College where she was honored as a Fu Foundation Scholar for four years and her M.D. degree from NYU School of Medicine where she was a Debrovner Scholar. Tune in to listen to Dr. Liu discuss emerging trends in rehabilitation care, specifically focused on treating patients with sports injuries, musculoskeletal conditions, and those who have suffered a stroke or other neurological event.
April O’Connell is a Clinical Specialist in the Hand and Upper Extremity Therapy Department at NYU Langone Center for Musculoskeletal Care. As a member of the American Society of Shoulder and Elbow Therapy (ASSET) she has a strong interest in sports rehabilitation, especially as it pertains to professional and recreational athletes. She has lectured to orthopedic surgeons and therapists in current concepts of orthopedic rehabilitation of the shoulder, elbow and hand. She has been a guest speaker for Doctor Radio on Sirius Satellite on topics including football & baseball injury and prevention, golf, tennis and skiing injuries and was featured in Shape Magazine in May 2013. She earned her Occupational Therapy degree at Boston University, is a Certified Hand Therapist and is certified by the American Council of Sports Medicine (ACSM) as a Clinical Exercise Specialist. In this interview, April discusses the emerging field of hand transplantation and 3-D motion analysis using wireless technology.
Dr. Jonathan Whiteson is Assistant Professor, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine; Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine; Medical Director of Rusk Outreach and Growth; and Medical Director of Cardiac Rehabilitation. His research interests include: cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation coping strategies during cardiac rehabilitation following cardiac surgery, pulmonary rehabilitation of individuals exposed to world trade center dust, and recognizing encephalopathy and delirium in the cardiopulmonary rehabilitation setting. In this interview, Dr. Whiteson discusses the occurrence of encephalopathy and delirium and the importance of coordination along the continuum of care.
Jena Harb is a board certified geriatric specialist and senior physical therapist, who most recently became a left ventricular assist device rehabilitation educator at Rusk. She has worked in acute care and adult inpatient acute rehabilitation settings with special interests in the areas of geriatrics and critical care medicine. Over the last several years she has worked primarily in the surgical and medical intensive care units, helping to lead an early mobility pilot project, which is now an accepted early mobility program in both the surgical and medical intensive care units. She has presented at multiple American Physical Therapy Association Combined Section Meeting conferences and is an active participant in clinical research at Rusk. She teaches at NYU Langone Medical Center, New York University, and Columbia University’s physical therapy departments. In this interview, Jena discusses the role of physical therapy in providing both inpatient and home-based care, teamwork with other members of the health professions, prevention, and key aspects of physical therapy research in rehabilitation.