Current RMSTP Fellows

Vincent Gabriel, MD

Dr. Gabriel's career as a scar researcher and burn rehabilitation clinician started early in his training. After graduating from the University of Saskatchewan College of Medicine with MD and B.Sc in Medicine degrees, Dr. Gabriel completed a five year residency at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Dr. Gabriel is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada with specialization in Rehabilitation Medicine. Following residency, Dr. Gabriel joined the faculty of The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas and the medical staff of Parkland Hospital in Dallas, Texas. Currently, Dr. Gabriel is the consultant physiatrist for the Parkland Hospital Burn Unit and burn clinic, medical director of outpatient wound rehabilitation, and the attending physician for the UT Southwestern Burn Rehabilitation Clinic. Additionally, Dr. Gabriel participates as an investigator and the clinical services director for the North Texas Burn Rehabilitation Model Systems project.  His resident seminars, research mentoring, and PM&R burns rehabilitation rotation have earned him three PM&R Faculty of the Year awards. Dr. Gabriel's current research focus is on human fibrosis and scarring after burn injury by examining human tissue analyzed in a systems biology approach. An avid board rider, cyclist, fisherman, and cook, Dr. Gabriel took some time to acclimate to the north Texas heat!

Christina M. Morton, MD

Dr. Morton received her MD from Wayne State University School of Medicine in 2004. She completed her residency at Northwestern University - Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago in 2008. She currently holds faculty appointments in the departments of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation and Obstetrics & Gynecology at the University of Michigan. Her research interests include musculoskeletal pelvic pain, pelvic floor dysfunction, and women's health issues, especially in women with physical disabilities. With a mentoring team lead by Drs. John DeLancey in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and James Ashton-Miller in Biomechanical Engineering, Dr. Morton is utilizing novel pelvic floor EMG electrodes to study neuro- physiological muscle activity and function in pelvic organ prolapse.

Amy Houtrow, MD

Dr. Houtrow obtained her MD from Michigan State University and subsequently completed residency training in a combined Pediatrics and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation program at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and the University of Cincinnati. During her residencies, she also completed an MPH in Health Policy and Management at the University of Michigan. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at the University of California at San Francisco. She also is the Medical Director of the Pediatric Rehabilitation Program and the Spina Bifida Program. Her research focuses on understanding the family impacts of raising children with disabilities. Her mentoring team
is lead by Dr. Paul Newacheck, a leader in health services research for children with special health care needs. 

Jennifer M. Zumsteg, MD

Dr. Zumsteg obtained her medical degree from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine after completing undergraduate studies in Biology and Psychology at Sonoma State University. She is completing residency training in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Washington and was elected chief resident for 2008-2009.  During her RMSTP fellowship, Dr. Zumsteg will analyze issues of environmental performance and sustainability in PM&R practice. Under the mentorship of a team lead by Dr. Joyce Cooper in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Washington, Dr. Zumsteg will investigate PM&R physician attitudes and behaviors regarding environmental stewardship, applications of environmental performance evaluations and guidelines in the rehabilitation setting, and the use of life cycle assessment in healthcare. She will continue clinical work in physiatry in the University of Washington healthcare system.

Qing Mei Wang, MD

Dr. Qing Mei Wang obtained her PhD and MD from University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and subsequently completed residency training in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Program at Mount Sinai Medical Center at NY. She currently holds an academic appointment in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School. She is a staff physiatrist at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital and Massachusett General Hospital. Her research is focused on investigating the mechanisms of neuroplasticity for stroke recovery in both animal model and stroke patients and developing pharmacological treatment to promote functional recovery. Her mentor team is lead by Dr. Moskowitz at Stroke and Neurovascular Regulation Laboratory at Harvard Medical School and by Dr. Zafonte at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital.

Pradeep Suri, MD

Dr. Suri obtained his medical degree from the University of Michigan Medical School and completed his residency training in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Washington. After attending in Spine and EMG clinics in the Puget Sound VA system, he decided to pursue subspecialty training, going on to complete a Spine and Musculoskeletal Fellowship at New England Baptist Hospital in Boston, MA. As an RMSTP fellow, Dr. Suri is conducting research on the epidemiology of degenerative lumbar spinal disorders under the mentorship of Dr. Jeffrey N. Katz. His work involves the identification of traditional and novel risk factors associated with pathoanatomic spinal degeneration, symptomatic disease, and functional limitations in the Framingham Heart Study Offspring and Gen 3 cohorts. He currently holds an academic appointment in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School. He is a staff physiatrist at The Spine Center of New England Baptist Hospital.

David C. Morgenroth, MD

Dr. Morgenroth's interest in human locomotion began at the age of 11 months when he successfully navigated the challenging crawl-to-walk transition.  He further developed his interest in the biomechanics of gait as an undergraduate at UC Berkeley, studying human hopping and running in Professor Claire Farley's biomechanics lab.  After attending medical school in his hometown New York City, Dr. Morgenroth rambled back out west where he completed his Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation residency training at the University of Washington, receiving the outstanding resident award for 2006-7.  PM&R provided the ideal forum to combine his intellectual interest in biomechanics with his clinical interest treating gait disorders, especially in the amputee population.  During his RMSTP fellowship and under the mentorship of Dr. Joseph Czerniecki, Dr. Morgenroth has begun to study the biomechanics of transfemoral amputee gait in order to elucidate the forces responsible for the high prevalence of knee osteoarthritis in this population.  He is currently a staff physician at the University of Washington and Seattle VA Medical Center.

James J. Hill III, MD

Dr. Hill is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine where he also serves as the Medical Director of the University’s Employee Health Clinic. He completed a residency in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a fellowship in Occupational & Environmental Medicine at Yale University. He is Board Certified in both Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation and Preventive Medicine/Occupational & Environmental Medicine and has a Masters in Public Health in Chronic Disease Epidemiology from Yale University. He is currently in Phase II of the Rehabilitation Medicine Scientist Training Program (RMSTP) through the National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research (NCMRR). His research interests include absenteeism, lost work time and productivity, organizational and economic incentives and their impact on return to work outcomes, epidemiologic methods related to classification of socioeconomic status, and long term outcomes in returning Afghanistan/Iraq combat veterans.

Richard Wilson, MD

Dr. Wilson obtained his MD degree from the Medical College of Ohio. He completed his residency in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at MetroHealth Medical Center/Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. Dr. Wilson is pursuing his research fellowship in health services research under the mentorship of Dr. Neal V. Dawson at MetroHealth Medical Center. His focus is to determine whether there is an association between healthcare resource utilization and psychological traits in those with spinal cord injury. He has a faculty appointment as a general physiatrist at the MetroHealth Rehabilitation Institute of Ohio in Cleveland, Ohio.

Leslie Morse, DO

Dr. Morse completed her medical training at the University of New England and her residency in PMR at Boston Medical Center. She is currently a staff physiatrist at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Clinical Associate at Massachusetts General Hospital, and has an academic appointment in the department of PMR at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Morse conducts her research under the supervision of her mentor, Dr. Philip Staskenko, at the Foryth Institute. Her RMSTP project is focused on neuromodulation of bone metabolism. Dr. Morse is currently studying the mechanisms of bone loss following neurological injury.

Brad Dicianno, MD

Dr. Dicianno is the Associate Medical Director of the Human Engineering Research Laboratories and Assistant Professor at the Univ. of Pittsburgh Medical Center in the Dept. of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. He is the Director of the UPMC Adult Spina Bifida Clinic and the Medical Director of the Center for Assistive Technology and Director of the RREMS (Rehabilitation Research Experience for Medical Students) for the AAP. His research focus is understanding motor control and movement disorders by studying the interfaces between the upper limb and engineering devices such as power wheelchair joysticks and interfaces for computer access. He completed an RMSTP fellowship at the Human Engineering Research Laboratories in Pittsburgh under the mentorship of Rory Cooper, PhD. Brad graduated from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine after obtaining a BS in Evolutionary Biology and a BA in the History and Philosophy of Science as an undergraduate there. He completed residency in the Dept. of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the Univ. of Pittsburgh Medical Center, where he served as chief resident.  During his fellowship he also received a Master's Degree in Bioengineering from the University of Pittsburgh.

Janna L. Friedly, MD

Dr. Janna Friedly grew up in upstate New York, but took the first opportunity she could to move west, attending college at Stanford University. After college, she moved to Eugene, Oregon, where she cultivated her interest in health services research and health care policy working for the medical director of a not-for-profit health plan analyzing physician performance and quality reporting. She then obtained her medical degree from Oregon Health Sciences University and spent a year working with mentor Laurence Huang at UCSF developing her basic research skills through the Training in Clinical Research program and conducting research on the genetic epidemiology of PCP pneumonia. After completing residency training in PM&R at the University of Washington, she returned to her interests in health services research through the RMSTP K12 program. She has been working at the University of Washington under the mentorship of Drs. Rick Deyo and Leighton Chan conducting health services research relating to epidural steroid injections for the treatment of low back pain in the Medicare population. She is currently an Acting Assistant Professor at the University of Washington in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine and with the Center for Clinical Effectiveness, Cost and Outcomes Research. Her primary research interests are in the provision of health services relating to low back pain. She is also extending her research focus to study the delivery of health care services to amputees. Clinically, she works at Harborview Medical Center in the amputee clinic and as an attending on the inpatient acute rehabilitation service. Her other academic interests are in quality improvement, medical ethics, and teaching evidence based medicine to medical students and residents.