January 2023

Research

Matt Durand, Ph.D, Research Director, Physical Medicine and Rehab

As we mark the end of the year 2022 and look forward to 2023, the Research Team would like to wish all members of the PM&R family a Happy New Year.  The year 2022 was a year of tremendous growth for our Research Program.  We would therefore like to take this opportunity to once again welcome the new members of our research team, showcase our research capacity, and highlight some of the research accomplishments of our faculty, fellows, and residents over the last year.

In February of 2022 we welcomed Whitney Morelli, Ph.D. to our faculty as an Assistant Professor.  Whitney was jointly recruited to MCW with our Cancer Center and is PM&R’s second research intensive faculty member.  In March we welcomed Sarah Golus, MS to our research team as a Clinical Research Coordinator to focus on extramurally funded clinical research projects.  In May, Alan Young, BS joined our team as our 3^rd Clinical Research Coordinator, and his primary role is to coordinate our growing industry-sponsored clinical trial portfolio.  Finally, in July Alicen Whitaker, DPT, Ph.D.(c) was awarded a position on the Cardiovascular Center’s prestigious NIH T32 training grant Training in Signature Transdisciplinary Cardiovascular Sciences. After completing her dissertation at the University of Kansas Medical Center, Dr. Whitaker will join Dr. Durand’s laboratory on April 1^st, 2023, and will be our PM&R Department’s first-ever postdoctoral fellow.

PM&R faculty currently hold 36 active IRB protocols, and nine new protocols were approved in the year 2022.  Collectively, members of our Department were involved in seven extramural funding applications for research as Co-Investigators in the year 2022, and twelve grant applications were submitted with PM&R faculty as Principal Investigators, a 100% increase over 2021.  In total, these grant submissions by our faculty totaled more than 13.5 million dollars in potential research funding.  Industry-sponsored clinical trials also experienced rapid growth, enrolling 16 participants in three industry-sponsored clinical trials, with three more in negotiation.  These trials are separately led by Drs. Nick Ketchum and John McGuire.

A few accomplishments and individuals we would like to highlight specifically are:

• Dr. Whitney Morelli, who received a 5-year K01 Award from the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health for her project entitled Micro-randomized Trial of a Physical Activity Intervention to Manage Pain Symptoms Among Older Cancer Survivors.  Her project will develop and test the timing of physical activity promotion messages to increase physical activity and reduce pain symptoms among older cancer survivors who experience chronic pain symptoms in a micro-randomized trial.  In addition, Dr. Morelli was awarded two pilot awards from the Pat Summitt Foundation and the American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grant from MCW’s Cancer Center to further patient-centered, technology-based physical activity programming in chronic disease populations.
   
• Dr. Karin Goodfriend and Sam Nemanich, Ph.D. (Marquette University), who received a C-PROGRESS award for $25,000 from the American Academy for Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine for their project entitled Corticospinal Organization and Bimanual Coordination in Children with Hemiparesis. Their project seeks to determine whether atypical cortical organization contributes to impaired bimanual coordination in children with hemiparetic cerebral palsy by using a pedaling paradigm to measure and manipulate upper limb movement while cortical activity is examined.
   
• Dr. Hans Anderson, who was selected as one of ten trainees for the Rehabilitation Medicine Scientist Training Program (RMSTP).  The RMSTP is an NIH-funded, national program organized by the Association of Academic Physiatrists that provides structured learning for the next generation of physician-scientists in the field of PM&R.  Dr. Anderson joins Dr. Colton Sauer as the second member of MCW’s PM&R residency program to be accepted into this prestigious training program.
   
• Dr. Akash Jindal, who was a recipient of a MCWAH Research and Quality Improvement Award for his research project entitled Genicular Nerve Radiofrequency Ablation: Comparing Pain Relief in Patients with and without a History of Total Knee Arthroplasty.

All of these accomplishments would not have been possible without the dedication and guidance of our phenomenal research staff, so on behalf of our entire Department, thank you to our Clinical Research Coordinators Sarah Golus, Alan Young and Jennifer Nguyen, and our Research Program Manager Meghann Sytsma for continuing to do an amazing job supporting our Research Program. 

One of Del Toro’s greatest mentors was Ernie Johnson, MD, for whom this award is named. “After hearing him speak I remember the phrase ‘don’t over read the EMG’ - meaning remember to focus on the patient and their clinical presentation, and don’t overemphasize the EDX findings over the clinical presentation. Both components (clinical & EDX findings) need to fit together to yield the clinical diagnosis,” said Del Toro.
 
The most valuable lesson he’s learned as an educator is “that I have to keep learning, can’t stay stagnant, and must always listen to the learners and understand their questions. Also, to be sincere and genuine in my teaching.” Del Toro strives to achieve an interactive approach to teaching students, residents, and fellows and tries to get everyone engaged in group teaching sessions.

He also thanks some of his early mentors, including Drs. Wertsch, Park, and Gnatz. “They were certainly instrumental in helping me to understand EDX medicine and clinical neurophysiology, which fueled my interest and passion for this field of subspecialty medicine and introduced the idea of becoming a teacher in EDX medicine.”

Saturday Clinic for the Uninsured

Charlotte Ball, MD shares a new exciting opportunity for community engagement through a new relationship with the Saturday Clinic for the Uninsured, a free clinic through the Medical School that provides primary care and specialty services to Milwaukee residents who are uninsured. 

Quarterly clinics at SCU will begin on January 28, 2023. Based on similar clinic models, the initial plan is to have 1 faculty volunteer and ~2 resident or fellow volunteers per clinic, which take place on Saturday mornings. This is a fantastic opportunity to work with medical students - each clinic will have M1/M2 volunteers recruited by the PM&R Interest Group who will be seeing patients with us. Patients with physiatric needs will be referred from their Primary Care or other specialty clinics to be seen on our PM&R clinic day. 

If you would like more information or are interested in being kept up-to-date on future clinics and opportunities to volunteer, please reach out to Dr. Ball, chball@mcw.edu. 

Congratulations Rhiannon Shewczyk! 

Please help us congratulate our Administrative Assistant Sr., Rhiannon and her family for welcoming their baby girl Penelope Olivia Karbin on 12/06/2022. 

The answer to this riddle below will be provided in next month's newsletter. Riddle courtesy of Alan Young, Clinical Research Coordinator:

"What does a man love more than life, hate more than death or mortal strife; that which contented men desire, the poor have, the rich require; the miser spends, the spendthrift saves, and all men carry to their graves?"

Answer to last month's riddle:  "a cloud" 

Monthly Wellness Feature: A New Year’s Resolution – Become an Inbox Ninja

Managing their inbox is something everyone struggles with.  Email can make us feel like we’re struggling to keep our heads above water.  So why not become an inbox Ninja as a New Year’s resolution?

Is your inbox never ending? Do you begin every day reading email, thinking you’ll reply to the most important messages, only to realize an hour has gone by and you’ve done nothing so far?  You are definitely not alone – many high-performing professionals struggle with the amount of email they receive and how to use email to accomplish their goals

So what does it take to be an inbox ninja? This Inbox Ninja (PDF) help sheet with tips to reduce volume, reduce cognitive load, capture attention, and communicate clearly can help you achieve your resolution to manage your inbox with best practices for email-specific writing and email management.

Below are a few other tips that may help you make your email less of a burden.  Many of these tips are common sense and don’t provide a magic bullet, which means they won’t blow your mind or become an overnight sensation.  But, by keeping the inbox ninja mindset, along with these tips, you may find ways to use email as a tool to get your tasks done.

Tips/reminders for managing email more efficiently:

1. Set time aside – block off a specific time each day to clean out your inbox
2. Delete first – scan & delete whatever you can first
3. Write short – say what you mean, be clear, and be concise
4. Use Groups or Distribution Lists – set up a group email to those you email repeatedly
5. Create templates – use for a response you send over and over
6. Turn Off Notifications, Close Email to Focus – getting on screen alerts can be disruptive and distracting
7. File into Mail Folders – moving emails into folders helps stay organized, but also lowers your inbox messages which can feel overwhelming

For more resources on email management click here. 

January marks National Mentoring Month!

Focus on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

The PM&R department has exciting events to announce!  

January 21st: For the first time ever, our department will be volunteering at the Saturday Clinic for the Uninsured! This is an outreach opportunity where faculty and residents will be able to provide MSK and rehab care to at-risk populations in our community. We hope to participate quarterly with room for expansion. Please e-mail Charlotte Ball with any questions on how to become involved. 

Sometime in January or February: We are hoping to set up a DEI-related documentary night at the Fermentorium! Date, time, and film to be determined. Keep your eyes open for an invite once we have more details! 

Other January Celebrations:

• January 1 – New Year’s Day
• January 4 – National Braille Day
• January 6 – Coptic Orthodox Christmas
• January 7 – Mahayana New Year (Buddhist)
• January 13 – Maghi (Sikh)
• January 15 – World Religion Day
• January 16 – Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
• January 22 — Chinese New Year (Year of the Rabbit)
• January 24 – International Day of Education
• January 26 – International Customs Day
• January 27 – International Holocaust Remembrance Day

COVID-19 Updates

• While MCW has mostly resumed normal operations, we will continue, in accordance with the CDC, the Wisconsin DHS and internal leadership, to provide updated information as it becomes available. For up to date information visit MCW COVID-19 FAQs. 

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