About the Research Center

The Rehabilitation Research Center at UM Rehabilitation & Orthopaedic Institute is a collaborative effort to bring state of the art research to clinical rehabilitation care for the patients we serve. The University of Maryland Rehabilitation Research Center (RRC), directed by Peter Gorman, MD, MS, Associate Professor, was originally conceived in 2005 as a collaborative effort between UM Rehabilitation and Orthopaedic Institute, the UM School of Medicine, and the VA Maryland Healthcare System. It has been generously supported by seed money from the Kernan Endowment Board.

Our mission is to advance the state of rehabilitation medicine science and apply these advancements to affect the best possible care for our patients. We see the need to continually “push the envelope” and try new approaches, while basing these new approaches on sound research principles and design. Specialized and advanced research programs have been developed in stroke and spinal cord injury rehabilitation, and future work in traumatic brain injury rehabilitation is under development.  Our main emphasis has been on the use of exercise and robotic rehabilitation techniques to improve the health, fitness, and function of people with neurologic disabilities.  Additional interests of affiliated faculty members are behavioral neurology, aphasiology, pain management, spasticity and the functional basis for neurologic recovery.

The RRC also promotes clinicians engaging in research and continuing education for clinicians using evidence based technique.  Two regional continuing educational events developed by UM Rehab clinicians were organized through the RRC and financially supported by the PVA Education Foundation.

This research work also involves extensive collaboration.  Ongoing collaborators include the University of Maryland R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, Baltimore VA Medical Center, University of Maryland Center for Integrative Medicine and various departments within the School of Medicine and the University of Maryland Medical System.  Individual project collaborating institutions include the James J. Peters VA Medical Center, Shepherd Center, Drexel University and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.  Our research has been supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense, Paralyzed Veterans of America, American Physical Therapy Association, PATIENTS program under AHRQ, and a variety of pharmaceutical and healthcare industry sponsors.

This web site will become a link to information about ongoing projects, investigational studies and collaborations. If you would like more information, please check back often, or call the RRC at 410-448-6773.

Peter H. Gorman, MD, MS
Chief, Division of Rehabilitation Medicine
Co-Director, Rehabilitation Research Center at UM Rehabilitation & Orthopaedic Institute
Associate Professor of Neurology
University of Maryland School of Medicine