Jimmy talks to Edelle (Edee) Field-Fote PT, PhD, FAPTA

In her role the Director of SCI Research and Director of the Hulse Spinal Injury Laboratory at Shepherd Center, Dr. Field-Fote leads a team dedicated to improving motor function in persons with SCI through the development of rehabilitation approaches informed by the latest neuroscience research.

Her contributions to the SCI literature include the largest study to date of locomotor training for persons with chronic, motor-incomplete SCI, and the first-ever study of a rehabilitation intervention to promote neuroplasticity for improved hand function in persons with tetraplegia.

Dr. Field-Fote’s research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) since 1997, and also by the National Institute on Independent Living, Disability and Rehabilitation Research and the Department of Defense (DoD). Dr. Field-Fote is the editor/author of the textbook Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation (FA Davis Publishers), she currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Neurologic Physical Therapy, and as Project Director of the Southeastern Regional Spinal Cord Injury Model System.

The Quick & Dirty:

- She's studied spinal cord injury her entire research career, beginning with PhD studies of scratching behavior in a turtle models of complete spinal cord injury (these studies were partially funded by the Foundation for PT)

- She did a sabbatical in Barcelona Spain, where she got her first introduction to pragmatic clinical trials (which is the direction she believes clinical research has to go).

Find her online at http://www.shepherd.org/research/spinal-cord-injury