Media contact: Anna Jones
Rachel Cowan, Ph.D., and Jereme Wilroy, Ph.D.The University of Alabama at Birmingham Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation has received a four-year, $2 million grant from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research to continue its longstanding spinal cord injury model system. This grant adds to 50 years of continuous funding for UAB SCIMS.
“UAB PM&R’s status as a longstanding spinal cord injury model system means that patients from Alabama and the southeastern United States have direct access to the most advanced research possible,” said Vu Nguyen, M.D., chair of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in the UAB Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine. “More importantly, we can translate this state-of-the-art research into direct care pathways that optimize the outcome for people living with spinal cord injury. Alabamians do not have to go far to have the best possible care in spinal cord injury.”
An SCI model system is awarded based on excellence demonstrated in the areas of research and knowledge translation that promotes health and quality of life for people with spinal cord injuries, their families and SCI-related professionals.
When a spinal cord injury occurs, paralysis can lead to impairment in neurological function, which controls mobility on the gut. UAB-SCIMS will research how bowel function and metabolic health are affected by spinal cord injuries and better understand how quickly this change happens and how long it may continue. The goal of this research is to help health care providers tailor treatments for patients with spinal cord injuries and potentially prevent this from happening in the future.
UAB begins this funding cycle under new leadership. Rachel Cowan, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the UAB Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine and program director of UAB SCIMS, will lead the program alongside Jereme Wilroy, Ph.D., assistant professor and co-director of the program.
“Leading UAB’s SCI model system is both a humbling and an exciting experience,” Cowan said. “UAB has been a model system since the program began 50 years ago. Dr. Wilroy and I look forward to continuing UAB’s track record of excellence.”
The department’s spinal cord injury model system has been funded continually since 1972 and remains one of the longest continually funded systems in existence. UAB is joined by 17 other SCI model systems around the country.
UAB Medicine’s Spain Rehabilitation Center has been named No. 20 in the U.S. News & World Report’s best hospitals for rehabilitation list. Researchers and health care providers in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation work to enhance and restore functional ability and quality of life to people with physical impairments or disabilities through high-quality patient care, innovative basic science and clinical research, and comprehensive education.