Departments
> Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation
The mission
of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at UMDNJ-New Jersey
Medical School and The University Hospital is to maximize the capacity of individuals
with physical disability so as to resume their life roles through excellence
in patient care, education, research & community service.
Joel A. DeLisa,
MD, MS
Professor and Chairman
 As
chair of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, I would like
to welcome you to our home page. We hope it will provide you with an informative
introduction to our specialty and our facilities.
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation as a medical specialty was established in the 1940s as a discipline primarily concerned with acute and chronic problems of the neuromusculoskeletal system. The goal of the physiatrist is to restore function and relieve pain in patients with a variety of disorders using a non-surgical multidisciplinary treatment approach.
Our faculty, resident physicians and
facilities create an environment for excellence in patient care, medical education
and rehabilitation research. We welcome inquiries about our outstanding residency
and fellowship training programs as well as our clinical and research programs
at (973) 972-3606.
Please
learn more about the research done in our department, and in collaboration with
faculty at Kessler Medical Rehabilitation Research and Education Corporation
(KMRREC), by viewing the Spring
2006 edition of UMDNJ Research.
The Physiatric Approach to Pain
and Disability
Physiatrists manage patients with pain and disabling disease. Disability is
manifested by an inability to perform independently those functions (physical,
psychological, social, vocational and avocational) that may be desired by a
patient or required by the environment and the social structure. No one-to-one
correlation exists between the disease or the extent of irreversible pathology
and the disability spectrum produced. Further, disability problems can be removed,
even though pathology may not be altered.
More than 10 percent of the U.S. population are disabled from chronic disease. While neuromuscular, musculoskeletal and cardiovascular systems dominate, disease within all systems contributes to the burden. Public awareness of disability has increased with the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. This law provides for equal opportunities in employment and access to public services and transportation for persons with disabilities. Rehabilitation for this segment of the population is expensive, therefore it is extremely important that all healthcare professionals are aware of the proper and most efficient utilization of these services.
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