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Director, PhD in Rehabilitation Science, Associate Professor
Department of Physical Therapy School of Health Professions, University of Alabama Birmingham
Birmingham, Alabama, United States
My background is as a manual therapy clinician who after 15 years left a successful private practice to pursue a research career investigating physiological mechanisms underlying manual therapy and physical rehabilitation approaches aimed at alleviating musculoskeletal pain and the improving human health. I received a NIH Career Development Award (K01AT005935) that investigated the Effects of Lumbar Hypo & Hypermobility on Sensory Responses to Spinal Manipulation in an animal model. This preclinical model of unilateral spinal joint dysfunction may mimic the ultimate impact of facet joint adhesions and diminished proprioceptive signaling related to advanced osteoarthritis. This work was continued with an R21 award (R21AT010517-01) entitled Proprioceptive Mechanisms Underlying Post-Spinal Manipulation Response in an NGF-induced Low Back Pain Model which characterizes primary afferent muscle spindle response to short (2-3ms) and long (100ms) spinal manipulative thrust durations in asymptomatic and a nerve growth factor (NGF) induced model of muscular low back pain. Translational implications of this study include knowledge of how spinal manipulative forces are diminished by in vivo viscoelastic properties and whether or not deep tissue force thresholds are required to elicit prolonged inhibition of muscle spindle responsiveness following spinal manipulation which may have clinical implications. Currently I am an MPI on an NIH U24 award (U24AT011969-01) titled Force-Based Manipulations Research Network that seeks to establish an interdisciplinary network of researchers and clinicians interested in investigating physiological/psychosocial mechanisms of manual therapy to better understand how manual therapy interventions alleviate musculoskelteletal pain.
Monday, October 30, 2023
2:30 PM – 3:45 PM