Good afternoon. Please find your seats as we take a few minutes to recognize PM&R physicians who have been influential in practice, research, and support of academic initiatives. PM&R physicians improve the quality of life for their patients and advance the specialty through groundbreaking research, innovative care, advocacy, public service, and volunteerism. The American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and the Foundation for PM&R offer our deepest gratitude to those with an exceptional commitment to excellence and advancement in physiatry. The Foundation for Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation's mission is investing in the scientific foundation and advancement of physiatric care through research. Year over year, the number of grant applications has greatly increased as has the level of scientific sophistication, making these awards competitive and prestigious. Congratulations to the following Foundation for PM&R grant recipients. Each year, the Foundation provides Richard Matterson ERF New Investigator Grants to support career development for physiatric investigators five years or less out of training. This year's recipients include Dr. Heather Barnett, University of Washington, Utilization and Outcomes of Inpatient Rehabilitation After Firearm-Related Injury. Dr. Brendan McNeish, University of Pittsburgh, Executive Functions Association with Mobile Measures of Community Walking in Older Breast Cancer Survivors, a pilot study. Dr. Hai Chang Rim, Spalding Rehabilitation Hospital, Effect of Ketorolac Injection on Lateral Epicondylitis, an open label single arm study. Dr. Joan Stilling, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York Presbyterian, Home Treatment of Post-Stroke Fatigue Using Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation. The Encompass Mid-Career Investigator Research Grant provides pilot funding to an established investigator with a proven track record who has a promising idea for a new line of research. Dr. Stacey Suskauer, Hugo Moser Research Institute at Kennedy Krieger, Preliminary Evaluation of Genetic Influences on Subtle Motor Function After Youth Concussion. The Nadler Passour Musculoskeletal Research Grant supports an established physiatric investigator who proposes an outstanding, innovative musculoskeletal rehabilitation research study. Hugo Mas Alari, University of Laval, Chronic Low Back Pain Management. This is the first time the foundation with support from Tactile Medical is offering a cancer rehabilitation research grant to investigate physiatric treatment for cancer patients. Dr. Sonal Oza, Emory University, Functional and Pain Outcomes Among Cancer Patients Receiving Botulinum Toxin. The Gabriella Molnar Pediatric PM&R Research Grant supports physiatric studies on childhood onset disabling conditions for best practices, models of care, and outcomes. Dr. Chong Tae Kim, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation for Children with Disorders of Consciousness Following Brain Injury. Dr. Jennifer Wu, Spalding Rehabilitation Hospital, Cerebral Biomarkers of Subacute Pediatric Brain Injury, a Transcranial Doppler Ultrasonography Study in the Pediatric Inpatient Rehabilitation Setting. This year's Gabriella Molnar Pediatric PM&R Lifetime Achievement Award is presented to Dr. Craig McDonald. Dr. McDonald is an extraordinary educator, clinician, and researcher. He has dedicated his career to neuromuscular diseases, especially Duchenne's muscular dystrophy. Dr. McDonald's research has contributed to the development of precision-based therapies for DMD and the first four approved therapies for dystrophin gene abnormalities that led to the absence of sarcolemmal associated muscle protein dystrophin, the underlying cause of DMD. Dr. McDonald has served as chair of the Department of PM&R at University of California Davis since 2009, training dozens of pediatric physiatrists and physiatric researchers. Foundation for PM&R research grants are made possible by the generosity of donors like you. Your support is appreciated by these grant recipients and awardees who are the future of our field. Congratulations! Please donate now by scanning the QR code. Thank you to this year's awards committee for their time and diligence in selecting the following 2024 AAPM&R award recipients. Dr. Walter R. Frontera, Rank H. Kruzan Lifetime Achievement Award. Dr. Frontera is a professor in the Departments of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine and Physiology at the University of Puerto Rico. He completed a residency in PM&R at the University of Puerto Rico and a doctoral degree in Exercise Physiology at Boston University. Dr. Frontera has been professor and founding chair of three departments of PM&R at Harvard Medical School, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Puerto Rico. He has also served as dean of medicine at the University of Puerto Rico. Active in sports medicine, he was the founder and first director of the Center for Sports Health and Exercise Sciences of the University of Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rico Olympic Committee. Dr. Frontera has more than 350 scientific publications, including 19 edited books that have been translated into numerous languages. Currently, Dr. Frontera serves as the editor-in-chief of the American Journal of PM&R. He is an elected fellow of many prestigious medical societies, including AAPM&R, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Royal College of Physicians, and the American College of Sports Medicine. Dr. Frontera has also received several awards, including AAPM&R's Best Scientific Research Paper and Distinguished Member Award. Dr. Frontera's countless achievements have evolved the specialty, and it is with great honor that we recognize his extraordinary impact on PM&R. Dr. Teresa A. Gillis, Distinguished Member Award. Dr. Gillis is the Chief of Rehabilitation Medicine Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Associate Attending Physiatrist at Memorial Hospital, and Associate Clinical Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. She is the incumbent chair of the Society of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. An AAPM&R member since residency, she is proud to serve on the Academy's Medical Education Committee. Dr. Craig M. McDonald, Distinguished Member Award. Dr. McDonald is a Distinguished Professor and Chair of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics at University of California Davis Health. He also serves as the Director of the Neuromuscular Disease Clinics at UC Davis and Shriners Hospital for Children, Northern California in Sacramento. He is an internationally recognized translational physician scientist whose work has contributed to the FDA approvals of five gene-targeted treatments for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Dr. Benjamin A. Abramoff, PM&R Public Service Health Equity and Advocacy Award. Dr. Abramoff is an Assistant Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. He serves as the Director of Spinal Cord Injury Services at the Penn Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine and is also the Founder and Director of Penn Medicine's Post-COVID Assessment and Recovery Clinic, one of the first comprehensive clinics for post-COVID care in the country. Dr. Annette Grother, PM&R Public Service Health Equity and Advocacy Award. Dr. Grother is a Board Certified Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physician and a current Pain Medicine Fellow at the University of Washington in Seattle. She completed her residency at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois and earned her medical degree along with a Master of Public Health from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. She also holds a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Colorado Boulder. Dr. Muyeon O. Park, PM&R Public Service Health Equity and Advocacy Award. Dr. O. Park has been a clinician, educator, researcher, administrator, and advocate throughout her 30-year career. She earned her medical degree from Seoul National University College of Medicine, her master's degree in clinical research methods from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and a master's in health care management from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She currently serves as the Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President of Burke Rehabilitation Hospital and a professor at the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Montefiore Health System in New York, New York. Dr. Burdell S. Colorado, Early PM&R Career Award. Dr. Colorado is the Assistant Dean for Student Experience at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Hirsing School of Medicine. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and also serves as Vice Chair of Education, Program Director for PM&R Residency, Program Director for the Interventional Spine and Musculoskeletal Medicine Fellowship, Chief of Sports and Musculoskeletal Medicine, and Medical Director for Performing Arts Medicine. He is a team physician for UAB Athletics and has been recognized with multiple awards nationally and within his institution. Dr. Vovanti T. Jones, Early PM&R Career Award. Dr. Jones is an Associate Professor of Clinical Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Missouri. She received her medical degree from the Washington University and St. Louis School of Medicine. She specializes in the rehabilitation of patients with neuromuscular diseases and neurologic disorders with a focus on stroke. Dr. Jones is the Medical Director of the Stroke Inpatient Rehabilitation Unit at Rusk Rehabilitation Hospital and is also the Co-Director of the University of Missouri's Muscular Dystrophy Association Clinic and the ALS Center of Excellence. Dr. Adam Tenforty, Early PM&R Career Award. Dr. Tenforty is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School as well as the Sports Medicine Physician at Spalding Rehabilitation. Dr. Tenforty is the Director of Shockwave Medicine and Running Medicine at the Spalding National Running Center. He has the unique perspective of being both a doctor and a former professional runner who was an All-American at Stanford University and later qualified for the Olympic Trials. Dr. Matthew J. Grierson, PM&R Awareness and Value Award. Dr. Grierson is a board-certified PM&R Sports Medicine Physician and the owner of Sound Spine and Joint Physicians, a practice in Seattle, Washington. As a staunch advocate for PM&R physicians and their patients, he chairs the Academy's Reimbursement and Policy Review Committee, spearheading member education and reimbursement advocacy. Notably, he is the first PM&R physician to secure a seat on the American Medical Association's Relative Value Scale Update Committee. Dr. Carlo J. E. Malani, PM&R Awareness and Value Award. Dr. Malani is an Assistant Attending Physiatrist at the Hospital for Special Surgery in the Department of Physiatry and also an Assistant Professor of Clinical Rehabilitation Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. He has served on the Academy's Reimbursement and Policy Review Committee since 2017 and is the Academy's advisor and primary advocacy voice for PM&R to the American Medical Association's Relative Value Scale Update Committee and alternate delegate to the AMA House of Delegates. Dr. Teresa M. Oney, PM&R Awareness and Value Award. Dr. Oney is a board-certified Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Specialist with a focus on non-surgical management of pain and musculoskeletal disorders. She currently runs a private practice in Grosse Pointe, Michigan and holds privileges at Corwell Hospital. She also serves as a board member for United Physicians and as a faculty member at Oakland University School of Medicine. Dr. Oney is a member of AAPM&R's Health Legislation and Policy Committee and also chaired AAPM&R's African-American Member Community. Dr. Stuart E. Willick, Passer Legacy Award and Lectureship. Dr. Willick is a sports medicine physician at the University of Utah Orthopedic Center. He completed residency at the University of Washington and fellowship at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. He first joined the Physiatric Association of Spine, Sports, and Occupational Rehabilitation as a resident in 1997. His clinical practice focuses on exercise approaches and rehabilitation of the recreational and elite athletes. He is the Head Team Physician for the National Champion University of Utah Ski Team and is the Medical Director of the Snowbird Ski Clinic. Thank you to the 2024 award recipients for advancing our specialty and the work we do on behalf of our patients. Please join us in congratulating all of the distinguished AAPM&R and Foundation for PM&R 2024 award winners. Hey! Good afternoon, everyone. I'm John Sionka, President-Elect of AAPM&R and Chair of the Awards Committee. I'd like to ask our 2024 award winners to please join me on stage and congratulate them on the incredible work they do on behalf of our academy. It's inspiring to see the amazing work you are all accomplishing. Now I'd like to ask our Cruisin' Lifetime Achievement Award winner, Dr. Walter R. Frontera, to say a few words to us all. Thank you very much, John. It is an honor and a privilege to be a part of this It is an extraordinary honor to receive this award, named after the founder of our specialty, a charter member of the academy, the first chair of the American Board of Physical Medicine, and the person credited with the term, physiatrist. My most sincere thanks to the academy and to the Awards Committee for this recognition. It is humbling to think about the important contributions made by those who have won this award in past years. Dr. Cruisin' strongly supported research, evidence-based practice, and education. We need all three things to continue to strengthen our field for the benefit of the more than 60 million people in the U.S. and 2.4 million people in the world in need of rehabilitation services. Because individual awards like this one are rarely the result of the work of one person, I would like to thank colleagues, residents, students, and staff at the University of Puerto Rico, Harvard Spalding, and Vanderbilt University, because they are essential parts of this award. I have enjoyed immensely practicing academic PM&R for 41 years in these three institutions. Also, thanks to my family for their unqualified support throughout my career. Finally, I hope this award, in fact all awards presented here today, will encourage residents and junior faculty to contribute to the growth and development of PM&R, a unique medical specialty with a bright future. Thank you very much. Thank you, Dr. Frontera. To continue celebrating the work of our peers, we'll be posting the awards video on the Academy's website and on social media. I encourage you to share the video with your friends and colleagues.

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Duchenne muscular dystrophy

PM&R advancement