Division of Rehabilitation Sciences

 Galv Daily News  01/02/17

A new year means many people will be hitting the gym looking to trim a few pounds. UTMB's Jean Gutierrez and Elizabeth Lyons were quoted in a story on exercise and weight loss in The Daily News. "Very small changes can have a very large impact on your health," Lyons said according to The Daily News.

 Rehab Sciences  01/06/17

The Center for Large Data Research and Data Sharing in Rehabilitation (CLDR) has announced its 2017 Call for Pilot Project Applications. The Center provides funding in three categories: Large Data Pilot Studies, Data Sharing and Archiving Pilot Studies, and Travel Awards for Secondary Data Analysis of Archived Studies.

 Galv Daily News  01/15/17

Staying fit after 55 comes with many benefits. UTMB's Jim Goodwin said one of the best reasons to exercise is that people feel better when they do. "For the last million years as we've been evolving, the species has been very active and stayed very active until recently," Goodwin told The Daily News.

 Rehab Sciences  01/31/17 - 02/28/17

The Lefeber Winter Series on Aging, now in its 22nd year, features nationally recognized gerontology research educators, basic scientists, clinicians and social scientists in a five-week series hosted at UTMB.

Videos now available! More about the Lefeber Winter Series on Aging.

 Rehab Sciences  02/01/17

The UTMB Pepper Center sponsored a lecture, "Perception of Decreased Mood and Cognitive Function Among Community-dwelling Adults Aging with Stroke" on February 1, 2017 presented by Monique Pappadis, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Division of Rehabilitation Sciences.

6 'Facts' About Protein You Should Stop Believing

 Women's Health Magazine  02/13/17

The average American eats twice the daily amount of recommended protein, UTMB's Douglas Paddon-Jones tells Women's Health Magazine. If you are eating an omnivorous diet then "protein inadequacy is really not an issue," Paddon-Jones said.

Here's How You Can Slay Your Workout Hunger

 Men's Health  02/07/17

UTMB's Doug Paddon-Jones is quoted in this article on what to eat after working out. "Twenty-five to 35 grams of high-quality protein per meal seems to maximize the building and repairing of muscle," says Paddon-Jones.

 Rehab Sciences  02/14/17

Dr. Ottenbacher has been selected as one of the 100 most influential people in occupational therapy's first 100 years, by the American Occupational Therapy Association as a part of their centennial celebration.

"Kenneth J. Ottenbacher, PhD, OTR, has significantly advanced the science of occupational therapy. His research focus is rehabilitation outcomes, with an emphasis on the assessment of change in functional status, disability, frailty, and minority health in older adults." Read more about Dr. Ottenbacher at the OT Centennial website or visit Dr. Ottenbacher's web profile at UTMB.

 Rehab Sciences  02/22/17

Jessica Jarvis successfully defended her dissertation, "Influences of cohort differences and positive emotion on the relationship between cognition and disability in activities of daily living among older Mexican Americans" for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Rehabilitation Sciences PhD Program on February 22, 2017.

Recently, Jessica Jarvis was awarded the Jeane B. Kempner Scholar award for 2016-2017 based on her application entitled, "Examining Variables that Effect Incident Disability in Older Mexican Americans."

 Rehab Sciences  02/23/17

The Center for Large Data Research and Data Sharing in Rehabilitation (CLDR) co-sponsored the UTMB Health Policy Dialogue on Feb 23, 2017, The IMPACT Act and Value -Based Health Care, presented by Gerben Dejong , PhD, FACRM.

More Information: Watch Video or Download PDF Flyer

 LA Times  02/23/17

A small amount of muscle loss is nearly inevitable with age. While the rate varies quite a bit, studies suggest the average person loses about 1% of muscle every year after about age 50, says Dr. Elena Volpi, director of the Sealy Center on Aging and program faculty in Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. 

 Rehab Sciences  03/02/17

Rehab Sciences faculty member Addie Middleton, PhD, PT, presented, "Improving Care for Older Adults" in the PMCH Seminar Series on March 2, 2017.

 Rehab Sciences  03/03/17

Testosterone is important to male health but most normal, healthy 30 to 40 year old men don't need testosterone-replacement therapy. "If you go in and say, 'Well, you know, in the past 10 years I've gotten more tired, I'm having trouble keeping weight off...' that's simply not enough-it's a natural phenomenon!" UTMB's Jacques Baillargeon told Men's Fitness magazine.

 Rehab Sciences  03/10/17

Rehab Sciences faculty member Brian Downer, PhD has been selected to attend the Claude D Pepper Older Americans Independence Centers Annual Meeting in Washington DC on March 23-24, 2017. In addition, Addie Middleton, PhD, PT, received a junior faculty scholarship to attend. Other attendees from Rehab Sciences include Dr. Pappadis and Dr. Ottenbacher.

 Rehab Sciences  03/21/17

Scot Kimball, PhD, Professor of Cellular and Molecular Physiology in the College of Medicine at Penn State will present, "Role of the mTORC1 Repressor REDD1 in Modulating Skeletal Muscle Atrophy and Hypertrophy" in the next CeRPAN lecture on March 21, 2017 at 2pm in Marie Hall.

 Rehab Sciences  03/24/17

Brian Downer, PhD, Assistant Professor in Rehab Sciences received the Best Poster Award at the 2017 National Pepper Older American Independence Center Meeting for his work titled, "Cohort Differences in Pre-Frailty and Frailty for Mexican Americans Aged 77 and Older". Co-Authors were Rafael Samper-Ternent, Bret Howrey, Soham Al Snih, Kyriakos Markides, and Ken Ottenbacher.

 Rehab Sciences  03/31/17

The Center for Large Data Research and Data Sharing in Rehabilitation and the Center for Recovery, Physical Activity and Nutrition welcomed Anne Deutsch, RN, PhD, CRRN, Senior Research Public Health Analyst at RTI International for a presentation entitled, "Measuring Quality: Principles and Methods" on March 31, 2017.

 Rehab Sciences  04/02/17

Monique Pappadis, PhD, Assistant Professor in Rehab Sciences participated in the Pink Concussions International Summit on April 2, 2017. She gave two presentations, “Differences in Minority Women and Brain Injury” and “Sexual Functioning, Desire, and Satisfaction in Women with TBI and Healthy Controls”.

Rehab Sciences  04/13/17
Rehabilitation Sciences PhD Program student Efi Polychronopoulou received an award for her poster, “Length of stay and discharge disposition are negatively impacted by obesity in pediatric burn patients”, presented at the UTMB Public Health Symposium on April 13, 2017. Co-authors on the poster were  Karmarkar A., Porter C., Meyer W., Suman OE., Finnerty C., and Herndon DN.

 

 Rehab Sciences  05/03/17

Addie Middleton, PhD, PT, Assistant Professor in Rehab Sciences presented, "Improving Care for Older Adults" in the Pepper Investigator's Lecture on May 3, 2017.

 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine  05/09/17

While Assistive Technologies Can Enable Those With Disabilities to Work, Environmental and Personal Factors Still Create Barriers

WASHINGTON – Assistive products and technologies – such as wheelchairs, upper-limb prostheses, and hearing and speech devices – hold promise for partially or fully mitigating the effects of impairments and enabling people with disabilities to work, but in some cases environmental and personal factors create additional barriers to employment, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. - Read Press Release

Rehabilitation Sciences Director, Ken Ottenbacher, PhD, OTR, served on the committee that produced this report.

 Rehab Sciences  05/16/17

The Center for Recovery, Physical Activity and Nutrition, a research initiative of the Division of Rehabilitation Sciences and the Department of Nutrition and Metabolism at UTMB hosted visitors from the University of Texas, San Antonio on May 15th, 2017.

Principal Investigator Blake Rasmussen, PhD, gave a presentation about the the University of Texas Adult Clinical Center (UTACC) for the Molecular Transducers of Physical Activity Consortium (MoTrPAC) and visitors toured the lab facilities in the School of Health Professions at UTMB. Download agenda.

 Rehab Sciences  05/18/17

Monique Pappadis, PhD, assistant professor in the Division of Rehabilitation Sciences and Fellow/RL5 Scholar of the Sealy Center on Aging, was recently selected to participate in the National Institute on Aging (NIA) Butler-Williams (B-W) Scholars Program, to be held July 31- August 4, 2017. The B-W Scholars Program is an intensive 5-day program geared towards emerging aging researchers and those with limited involvement in research on aging to learn more about research on aging and to further develop their interest in this challenging and important area. Dr. Pappadis is one of 53 participants selected from among a group of outstanding applicants.

Rehab Sciences  05/19/17
Rehabilitation Sciences PhD Program Director, James Graham, presents Graduates: (top l-r) , Dr. Tony Chao*, Dr. Jessica Jarvis, (bottom l-r) Dr. Kshitija Kulkarni* and Dr. Zakkoyya Lewis-Powell.
(*Degrees conferred in December 2016.)

 Rehab Sciences  05/19/17

Congratulations to Amol Karmarkar, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Division of Rehabilitation Sciences, recipient of a Graduate Student Organization Distinguished Teaching Award, presented at the 2017 Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences Commencement on May 19, 2017.

USA Today  06/07/17
New research is being reported that finds moderate drinkers were more likely than abstainers or light drinkers to develop worrisome brain changes that might signal eventual memory loss. UTMB’s Brian Downer PhD, comments on the research saying the new findings are a good reminder that even moderate drinking can have health consequences.

This news also reported in Tribune Live, Corpus Christi Caller Times, Cincinnati Enquirer, Abilene Reporter-News and many other media outlets. 

 Rehab Sciences  06/12/17

Joseph T. Giacino, PhD was named the 2017 recipient of the Robert L. Moody Prize for Distinguished Initiatives in Brain Injury Research and Rehabilitation at the 17th Annual Galveston Brain Injury Conference May 4 & 5, 2017.

The conference is sponsored jointly by the Transitional Learning Center in Galveston and the Center for Recovery, Physical Activity and Nutrition (CeRPAN) at UTMB. Dr. Giacino is the Director of Rehabilitation Neuropsychology and Research Associate in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston. He is also an associate professor at Harvard Medical School.

Rehab Sciences  07/13/17

The Division of Rehabilitation Sciences, the Center for Large Data Research and Data Sharing in Rehabilitation (CLDR), and the Office of Biostatistics in the Department of Preventive Medicine & Community Health at UTMB co-hosted a two-day workshop on July 13-14, for research investigators, "Instrumental Variables Analysis" presented by Felix Elwert, PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Public Now: U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research gains fellowship recipients  07/21/17

In 2016, the Shock Society partnered with the Department of Defense to offer fellowships to Shock Society members to conduct research in trauma, hemorrhage shock and sepsis, creating the Shock Society-Department of Defense Battlefield Health and Trauma Fellowship in San Antonio.

The first recipient of the fellowship was Rehabilitation Sciences PhD graduate, Dr. Tony Chao (Dec. '16).

'With all the support and resources surrounding me here at the USAISR, I am looking forward to a very productive second year in my fellowship,' he said. 'Without a doubt, the training that I had and will continue to receive here at the USAISR will provide a strong foundation to further progress me in my goal to become an independent investigator,' said Chao.

UTMB Pepper Center  09/18/17

Congratulations to the following Rehabilitation Sciences Fellows who received pilot project funding from the UTMB Pepper Center this fall: Rachel Deer, PhD: Validating a Screening Tool for Sarcopenia Using a Model for BIA Analysis; Ted Graber, PhD: Aging Skeletal Muscle and Sarcopenia in the Murine Model; and Cynthia Li, PhD: Functional Trajectory and Successful Community Discharge in Older Adults.

Center for Large Data Research and Data Sharing in Rehabilitation 10/05/17

CLDR- Sponsored Young Investigators Panel: Secondary Analysis of Archived Datasets

Four early career researchers will present their work as part of a CLDR sponsored symposium. This multidisciplinary session will highlight the importance of archiving and sharing data as well as show how new knowledge that can be generated through secondary data analysis.

The CLDR is involved in a number of additional podium presentations and paper/poster sessions at this year’s annual ACRM Conference. Find us at Booth #403 in the main exhibition area.

Read more about CLDR events at the ACRM Conference October 25-28, 2017

10/05/17 - Training in Grantsmanship for Rehabilitation Research

Congratulations to Rehabilitation Sciences members Brian Downer, PhD and Annalisa Na, PT, PhD, DPT, OCS for acceptance into the Training in Grantsmanship for Rehabilitation Research workshop (TIGRR) to be held on January 9-13th, 2018 in Charleston, SC.

 TIME: Is it bad to exercise on an empty stomach?  10/19/17

In this fitness column, the issue of working out on an empty stomach is addressed. “You might feel tired or edgy and you won’t be able to work out as intensely as you would have if you had eaten something,” said UTMB’s Douglas Paddon-Jones.  

 Sealy Center on Aging Forum on Aging  10/20/17

The Annual Forum on Aging informs gerontology researchers and the community about aging research at UTMB.

This year, four members of Rehabilitation Sciences received awards:

Juliana Bores, "Patient Characteristics Associated with Functional Status Change in Stroke"

Camille Brightwell, "Diabetes Is Associated with Lower Limb Strength Decline in Hispanic Older Adults"

Catherine Cooper Hay, "Investigation of Chronic Young Stroke Survivors' Goal Priorities"

Chih-Ying Li, "Post-Acute Care Trajectory Among Hip Fracture Medicare Beneficiaries: Hospital Referral Regions Perspectives" and, "Association Between Gait Speed and Mobility Disabilities in Mexican Older Adults"

 GBIC/Moody Prize  10/31/17

Nominations are being accepted through December 1 for The Robert L. Moody Prize for Distinguished Initiatives in Brain Injury Research and Rehabilitation.

The purpose of the award is to recognize and honor individuals or groups whose efforts have made significant contributions towards (1) advancing clinical research related to disorders of the brain, (2) developing improved treatment and rehabilitation procedures for persons who must contend with the disabilities associated with congenital or acquired brain disorders and (3) increasing awareness of the need for the rehabilitation of individuals following brain injury. Learn more about The Robert L. Moody Prize.

 Rehab Sciences 12/13/17
Tim Reistetter, PhD, OTR, FAOTA has been appointed the Grace Bucksch Gnitzinger Distinguished Professorship in Aging. Dr. Reistetter is a research investigator in the Center for Recovery, Physical Activity and Nutrition and other programs related to aging at UTMB.

  Rehab Sciences  12/14/17

The Award for Scholarship Excellence was presented to James Graham, PhD, DC, for his honors and achievements since joining the School of Health Professions in 2006. This award is presented to the SHP faculty member who demonstrates scholarship through evidence of creative contributions to knowledge in his or her field.

 Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences 12/19/2017

Congratulations to the following Division of Rehabilitation Sciences GSBS scholarship recipients:

• Jason Bentley, Emily E. Dupree Award for Excellence in Rehabilitation Science and The Charles F. Otis Clinical Research Award
• Juliana Bores, Edith and Robert Zinn Presidential Scholarship
• Catherine Hay, Peyton and Lydia Schapper Endowed Scholarship Fund
  and the Sameul N. Kolmen, PhD and Barbara Kass Kolmen, MD, Travel Scholarship
• Ioannis Malagaris, University of Texas Medical Branch Retirees Association Scholarship Fund
• Efi Polychronopoulou, Eleanor Dupree Otis Biostatistics Award