Research

Research conducted by the Rehabilitation Science faculty and staff is supported by research teams, centers, a variety of satellite laboratories and clinical research sites located across the medical campus and surrounding community. In addition to core research facilities and labs, PhD Faculty collaborate with other scientists both regionally and nationally to conduct interdisciplinary and translational research. Our teams are routinely invited to present their research findings in scientific publications and at local, national, and international conferences.

The newly developed CU Rehabilitation Science Consortium is a shared workspace and meeting place for graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, residents, and research assistants who conduct research with faculty in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.

Research Areas

Much of our work falls into the following related areas:

Clinical trials research | We have led major studies focused on defining the impairments associated with specific disorders and outcomes from physical interventions. These investigations have helped to define how physical rehabilitation changes function and other outcomes for people who live with a variety of disabilities.

Health services research | Data from large national data bases and from large clinical practices help us to better understand how a whole host of factors work together to determine the extent to which a person will have functional loss or disability. We have a number of ongoing studies using such data.

Translation to real life | Research studies in clinical laboratories help us to know what should be included in interventions to change people’s lives. However, information from these controlled studies need to be translated to practical application in the real world. We have a number of such studies going on that examine ways.

Mechanistic research | Our faculty study the mechanisms underlying disability understanding the role of such diverse topics as genetic biomarkers, muscle physiology, neurophysiology, behavioral medicine, and biomechanics. These mechanistic studies relate to the broader questions that we research related to improving disability of a wide variety of populations.