This year has been a memorable one, with a variety of “firsts” throughout our department.

To start, we held the inaugural Johns Hopkins Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Expo for medical students and trainees from Maryland and Washington, D.C. The event highlighted spasticity management, animal assistive therapy, laser therapy, lymphedema, kinesio taping and splints, and multidisciplinary therapeutic modalities for spinal cord injury and neurorehabilitation.

The first one of our faculty members was inducted into the highly selective Miller-Coulson Academy of Clinical Excellence, which honors Johns Hopkins clinicians for exemplary patient care. Dorianne Feldman was recognized for combining her skills as a physical therapist and board-certified physiatrist when treating her patients. She is a graduate of the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation residency program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

In 2017, we also:

• Launched our first clinic to diagnose, treat and prevent musicians’ injuries 
• Developed the Multiple Sclerosis Rehabilitation Program in coordination with the Johns Hopkins Multiple Sclerosis Center 
• Expanded the Johns Hopkins Rehabilitation network by increasing capacity for acute inpatient rehabilitation at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center by 40 percent (see page 3) and opened a new 20,000 square feet inpatient rehabilitation facility at The Johns Hopkins Hospital
• Launched the first Musculoskeletal Center in collaboration with the Department of Orthopaedics to diagnose, treat and rehabilitate musculoskeletal conditions.

And last but not least, our department published 64 research papers from July 2016 to June 2017 while the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research reported that our department ranked seventh in National Institutes of Health funding to U.S. medical schools in 2016.

Without our patients, our passion for such firsts would not exist. As always, if we can help with any physical medicine and rehabilitation needs, please let us know: 410-614-3234.