Mission Statement

Our mission is to provide excellence in rehabilitative care through advances in rehabilitation research, promoting collaborative efforts across health-related disciplines, endorse and support patient advocacy, and develop programs of excellence in education and teaching.

Message from the Vice Chair for Research:
In 2003, the NIH Roadmap Initiative was implemented with an "integrated vision to deepen our understanding of biology, stimulate interdisciplinary research teams, and reshape clinical research to accelerate medical discovery and improve people's health." The purpose of implementing this initiative was based, in part, on the "scale and complexity of today's biomedical research problems," which will require scientists to "move beyond the confines of their own discipline and explore new organizational models for team science." As such, future NIH funding will favor synergistic "interdisciplinary research teams" focusing on clinically relevant strategies encompassing the entire spectrum of patient care. This translational approach lead the NIH to adopt the concept of moving basic research discoveries "from the bench to the bedside."

The overall goal of the research program in PM&R is to identify and test innovative and complimentary rehabilitation interventions, and utilize rehabilitation outcome measures to document the short- and long-term impact of these strategies on improving quality of life. In essence, we have extended the “translational research” concept to include rehabilitation outcomes so that we can move these discoveries "from the bench to the bedside AND beyond."

One of the major themes of the NIH Roadmap is to promote private-public partnerships. The rehabilitation programs at Cardinal Hill Rehabilitation Hospital have played a pivotal role in ongoing clinical studies (inpatient and outpatient) originating from the University of Kentucky. Cardinal Hill Rehabilitation Hospital also has a leadership role and active participation with community-based support groups, education and research programs in rehabilitation, data management of numerous indices of functional outcome, and long-term assessment of quality of life.

Working with faculty and staff from the University of Kentucky and Cardinal Hill Rehabilitation Hospital, the research program in PM&R will continue to identify and incorporate assessment tools to optimize measures of human performance and recovery. By combining the strengths of the two Institutions, we have the opportunity to become one of the nation’s top rehabilitation research programs. In 2004, the PM&R Department was rated 8th in the nation for NIH funding compared to other public medical schools. We plan to maintain this distinctive edge by:

• Improving the quality of patient care by identifying and facilitating the integration of unique research teams from the various Colleges at the University of Kentucky and Cardinal Hill Rehabilitation Hospital.
• Attracting established investigators and support staff with areas of expertise that bridge and synergize interactions between clinical research and the CNR rehabilitation programs.
• Successfully compete on a national level for federal and private foundation funding opportunities.
• Providing leadership and mentoring for research fellows and young faculty, as well as unique educational/training opportunities for students and residents.
• Developing programs that will increase the regional and national recognition of the PM&R research program.

Profile: Dr. Joe Springer is Professor and Vice Chair for Research in PM&R and in 1994 was appointed as the Cardinal Hill Endowed Chair in Neurorehabilitation. In 1980, he received a B.S. in Neuroscience from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas, and in 1984 received his Ph.D. in Psychobiology from the State University of New York in Binghamton, NY. Dr. Springer joined the faculty in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology at the University of Kentucky in 1995. He currently serves as President of the Society for Neuroscience Bluegrass Chapter, is on the Executive Committee of the Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Research Center and the Advisory Board of the Kentucky Neuroscience and Orthopedic Institute, and has been a member of the editorial board of five journals in the neuroscience field. Dr. Springer's research interests include CNS trauma, cell death mechanisms and mitochondrial function, treatment strategies in CNS trauma, and rehabilitation and recovery of function following CNS damage. Hobbies include fishing, golfing, ornithology, and playing guitar.