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Assistant Professor
Department of Physical Therapy, School of Health Professions, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, United States
I am a clinician-scientist and the Director of Clinical Research at the American Sports Medicine Institute (ASMI). I have a clinical background as a sports medicine physical therapist, and my commitment to research in individuals with lower extremity injuries grew out of my clinical practice and patient care experiences. Often seeing inconsistent rehabilitation outcomes, I was motivated to understand factors that could improve treatment for these patients. The focus of my Ph.D. training was outcomes research and included training in measuring function, biomechanics, and quantitative magnetic resonance imaging, primarily in individuals with knee and hip injuries. Additionally, my Ph.D. training allowed me to help develop and lead multiple prospective cohort studies. As an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), I further expanded my research and led a collaborative research team that evaluated the associations among joint function, device-measured physical activity, and/or pain in individuals with knee injuries and intra-articular hip pathology; including those with anterior cruciate ligament injuries, FAIS, and acetabular dysplasia. At ASMI, I now lead a portfolio of sports medicine clinical research that broadly aims to evaluate surgical outcomes, rehabilitation efficacy, as well as injury mechanisms to improve prevention and treatment of sports-related orthopaedic injuries. The scope of ASMI clinical research includes retrospective outcomes studies using data repositories, functional, clinical, and physical activity-based onsite longitudinal studies, and surgical and biologic clinical trials. Most of these studies are designed in collaboration with sports medicine clinical partners at ASMOC, and are led and managed by our ASMI clinical research team. As such, we have developed a robust and seamless infrastructure (systems and personnel) for the recruitment, enrollment, and follow-up testing of clinical populations at ASMOC in research studies at ASMI. Altogether, my clinical background, role and team at ASMI, existing collaborations with and proximity to ASMOC, and
research experience well-position me to lead this scoping review and interpret its findings.