Scholarships, fellowships, and grants. (Foundation for Physical Therapy).

Meet the Clinical Research Network Investigators

Many researchers will be contributing to the success of the Foundation's first Clinical Research Network (CRN). Following is a brief introduction to some of the CRN's key players.

Principal investigator Carolee J Winstein, PT,, PhD, FAPTA, is the Director of the Motor Behavior Laboratory and Associate Professor in the Department of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy and Department of Neurology at USC. Her current research is on the recovery of upper-extremity function following central nervous system damage.

Since 2000, she has been the principal investigator (PI) at USC for the project, Extremity Constraint-Induced Therapy Evaluation (EXCITE). EXCITE is a multi-site, randomized, single-blind clinical trial to determine the effectiveness of constraining the use of the non-paretic arm and hand on the recovery of use of the paretic arm and hand in people who have had a stroke and are between 3 and 9 months post-stroke. This approach is similar to placing an eye patch over a strong eye to force a weak or lazy eye to improve its movements. In 2002, she became the co-PI for the entire multi-site EXCITE trial.

Winstein is also the PI of a 3-year, $250,000 companion grant to EXCITE, "Brain and Behavior Correlates of Arm Rehabilitation," awarded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). This project uses special electromagnetic sensors on the hand and arm to capture the changes in manual skills and brain neuroimaging techniques (fMRI) to capture the changes in brain activity associated with constraint-induced therapy in stroke survivors who are between 3 and 9 months post stroke.

Winstein is very active in the leadership of APTA, having served as the Neurology Section Research Committee Chair from 1994-1996 and as a member of the Foundation's Scientific Review Committee from 1995-1998. She received the Eugene Michels New Investi-gator Award in 1992, the Neurology Section's Research Award in 1998, and recently became a Catherine Worthing-ham Fellow, APTA's highest honor.

Co-principal investigator James E Gordon, PT, EdD, is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy, University of Southern California. During his earlier tenure at Columbia University, he was the lead investigator on 3 research projects that made important contributions to the understanding of motor control. Gordon has written frequently as part of the effort to advance physical therapy research, including chapters in Movement Science: Foundations for Physical Therapy in Rehabilitation (Aspen Publishers) and Principles of Neural Science (McGraw-Hill). He was awarded APTA's Margaret L Moore Award for Outstanding New Faculty Member in 1993 and has been a Distinguished Lecturer at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center (RLANRC) and at the Department of Rehabilitation Science, University of Oklahoma. He has also been Assistant Professor at Columbia University, and Professor and Program Director at New York Medical College.

"STEPS"

David A Brown, PT, PhD, will lead the phase III multi-site randomized clinical trial (RCT) Strength-Training Effectiveness Post Stroke (STEPS) to determine the best program of muscle strength training for recovery of walking in people who have had a stroke using a combination of treadmill training in a weight-assisted harness and a program of progressive resistive exercise.

Brown is Associate Professor, Department of Physical Therapy and Human Movement Sciences, and Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Northwestern University. His previous research on the effect of increased workloads to enhance force output during pedaling exercise in people with poststroke hemiplegia provides an excellent foundation for this CRN project. Brown is currently the PI of a 4-year, $700,000 award from the National Institute on Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), "Muscle Activity Initiation During Hemiparetic Locomotion"; and a subcontract PI on a 5-year, $196,000 award from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR), "Acquisition of Locomotor Capability Post Stroke" and on a 5-year, $87,000 award from NICHD, "Restoration of Function in Neurologic Impairment." Brown is a 1993 Foundation award recipient.

Serving as co-lead investigators are Sara J Mulroy, PT, PhD, Director, Pathokinesiology Laboratory, RLANRC; and Katherine J Sullivan, PT, PhD, Assistant Professor of Clinical Physical Therapy, Biokinesiology Department, University of Southern California. Mulroy and Sullivan are 1989 and 1997 Foundation funding recipients.

"PEDALS"

Eileen G Fowler, PT, PhD, will lead the phase I RCT Pediatric Endurance Development and Limb Strengthening (PEDALS) to determine if a 12-week program of stationary cycling enhances function in children with cerebral palsy (CP). Her previous research on the biomechanics of cycling and the effects of strengthening on spasticity in CP provides an excellent background for this project. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, UCLA, and is co-investigator on grants from NIDRR and the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Fowler received a 1995 Foundation award to study spasticity, muscle activity, and children with CP, and last year received APTA's Jack Walker Award for the Best Paper in Clinical Practice.

Her co-lead investigators are Loretta M Knutson, PT, PhD, PCS, Professor, Department of Physical Therapy, Southwest Missouri State University; and Sharon K DeMuth, DPT, Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy, USC. Knutson is a 1989 Foundation award recipient.

"MUSSEL"

Kornelia Kulig, PT, PhD, will lead the phase I RCT Muscle-Specific Strength Training Effectiveness Post Lumbar Microdiscectomy (MUSSEL) to assess immediate and long-term effects of an exercise program that targets specific back muscles. Effectiveness will be determined through an examination of pain and improved function in people recovering from lumbar microdiscectomy. Her previous training in biomechanics and experience with muscle activation as determined from MRI have prepared her to lead this project. She is Associate Professor of Clinical Physical Therapy at USC. In 2002, she received the Excellence in Teaching Orthopaedic Physical Therapy Award and a 1-year, $7,500 grant studying the "Effectiveness of Exercise on Function, Quality of Life, and Disability in Patients With Posterial Tibial Tendon Dysfunction." Both the award and the grant were from APTA's Orthopaedic Section.

The co-lead investigator for the MUSSEL project is Christopher M Powers, PT, PhD, Assistant Professor and Director, Musculoskeletal Biomechanics Research Laboratory, Department of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy, USC. Powers is a 1993 and 2001 Foundation recipient.

"STOMPS"

Bryan J Kemp, PhD, will lead the phase I RCT Strengthening and Optimal Movements for .Painful Shoulders (STOMPS) to investigate the effectiveness of a combined shoulder exercise and optimization of performance technique on pain reduction, performance, and quality of life in patients with chronic spinal cord injury (paraplegia). Kemp's research history has focused on the effects of aging with a disability, and quality of life while living and aging with a spinal cord injury. He just concluded a 5-year, $3.25 million grant establishing the Rehabilitation Research Training Center (RRTC) on Aging with Spinal Cord Injury and will be finishing another 5-year, $3.5 million grant this year establishing the RRTC on Aging with a Disability, at RLANRC. Kemp is the Director of Gerontology Programs, RLANRC; Clinical Professor of Family Medicine, Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, and Research Professor of Gerontology at USC; and Clinical Professor of Medicine, Program in Geriatrics, University of California at Irvine.

The co-lead investigator for this project is Robert L Waters, MD, Medical Director, RLANRC, and Clinical Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, USC. Lilli Thompson, PT, is serving as Project Manager and is currently Research Associate at both RRTCs at Rancho, and Training Director of the RRTC on Aging with Spinal Cord Injury.

The Foundation is proud to fund the largest project in its history and would like to thank the following corporations for helping to make it happen: Empi, efi/Total Gym, and Sammons Preston/ Rolyan.

Scientific Review Committee Nominations Due

Nominations for new members of the Scientific Review Committee (SRC) for 2004 are due on June 30, 2003. Please see SRC membership criteria at www.apta.org/Foundation. E-mail your nominations by June 30 to Lucy Dickson, Scientific Program Administrator, at [e-mail].