James Rae Day
The history of the Department of PM&R at the University of Michigan was the highlight of the annual James Rae Alumni Dinner, held April 23, 2009, at the Michigan League. Over 54 people, including alumni, faculty, residents, and former faculty attended. For the first time, all four former and current chairs of the Department were in one room at the same time for a group photo. Dr. James Rae and his wife Arleen traveled from Traverse City to be the honored guests at the dinner.
Judy Pence made a presentation on the Department's history project. Former chairs Ted Cole and Jim Leonard have agreed to edit the work and Dr. Cole has offered to lead the effort to raise funds to support its publication. Judy is collecting the photos and historical write ups from alumni and current faculty. She hopes for a finished product by next year.
Next, the attendees were treated to a moving video about Brock Mealer, a young man who sustained a spinal cord injury in a motor vehicle accident. Brock has used the Lokomat robotic therapy device at MedRehab and feels that this new therapy has improved his mobility significantly. UM Football Coach Rick Rodriguez was featured in the video as well. Finally, the Newman scholarship award was presented to Anton Khouri by Dr. Steven Newman, who attended with his wife Katy Newman, and Donald Newman, who attended with his wife Chief Justice Marilyn Kelly. Future physiatrist Khouri told the audience how his father's spinal cord injury and its treatment by former UM PM&R faculty member Austin Nobunaga inspired him to enter the field.
The James W. Rae Scientific Day and Lecture was held the following day, April 24, 2009. Our invited speaker this year was Heidi Prather, D.O., from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Dr. Prather’s presentation title was “Differentiating and Recognizing Co-existing Spine and Hip Dysfunctions.” She presented her research findings on combined hip and spine problems and then examined two patients, presented to her by our residents, while teaching the assembled crowd. Another presentation of note was given by Myron LaBan, M.D., former chair of the PM&R Department at Beaumont Hospital, UM medical school alumnus and former Newman scholar recipient. Chijoke Nwagwu, D.O. was the Kathy Kielb Memorial Lecturer and presented two very interesting cases from his clinic population. Three of our faculty members, among others, were also on the program. Joseph Hornyak, M.D., Ph.D. presented his work with Kinesiology on helping children with Down Syndrome to learn to ride bicycles; James Richardson, M.D., presented a trio of updates on his research on gait and neuropathy as well as ulnar nerve entrapment; and Andrew Haig, M.D. presented on his new paper, soon to be published in five rehabilitation journals, on rehabiltation in Sub-Saharan Africa and Antarctica. Dr. Virginia Nelson, who did a wonderful job putting the program together, is a co-author on that paper.
The James Rae events are a great time for touching base and catching up with old friends. Many alumni and former faculty traveled to Ann Arbor for the day, including Drs. Kim Augenstein and Karen Meyer from Traverse City, Carol Crooks from St. Louis, Missouri, Cynthia Garcia from Harlingen, Texas, Ben Konzen from Houston, Texas, as well as our local alumni –Drs. Brian Chodoroff, Jennifer Doble, Larry Handelsman, Luke Kim, Alex Selim Theisen, and Hank Tong. Next year will be the Department’s 60th anniversary. We hope that even more of our UM PM&R family will be able to attend. Mark your calendars now for May 7, 2010. Hope to see you there!
For information about donations and other giving opportunities, please contact Tom Wright at 734-615-1256 or e-mail thomasjw@umich.edu.
