The Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Rush focuses on the restoration of function in people with a wide range of disabling injuries and illnesses. PM&R is not an organ-based specialty. Rather, it deals with the whole person. Rush sees the highest number of patients with multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease in the area, and we are among Chicago’s busiest orthopedic and neurosurgical services. Through our inpatient services in the Johnston R. Bowman Health Center, we consult an average of 10 patients each day.

Comprehensive services in physical medicine and rehabilitation include:

• A prosthetic clinic, where physicians prescribe artificial limbs for people who have had limbs amputated.
• Disability evaluation.
• Independent medical evaluations for legal cases.
• Electrodiagnostic services (EMGs and nerve conduction studies)
• Movement disorders and spasticity clinics.
• Pediatric rehabilitation.
• Chronic pain treatment.
• Baclofen pump maintenance program.

Patients are evaluated for all rehabilitative needs, including medications, occupational therapy, prosthetics and orthotics. A full range of treatment options is available, including botox injections for spasticity, joint and periarticular injections, spinal injections and motor point blocks.

James A. Young, MD, is acting chairperson of the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation. Christopher Reger, MD, is program director. Physicians who practice in the field are called physiatrists. Physiatrists care for patients with acute and chronic pain, and musculoskeletal problems such as back and neck pain, tendinitis, pinched nerves and fibromyalgia. They treat people who have experienced catastrophic events resulting in paraplegia, quadriplegia or traumatic brain injury. They also work with people who have had strokes or orthopedic injuries or who suffer with neurological disorders such as multiple sclerosis, polio or ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease).

For information about physicians at Rush specializing in physical medicine and rehabilitation or related areas, see the link at left for “Find a Doctor.”