The awarded project is titled, “Spine pain and physical therapy in the long-term care population.” Dr. Prusynski will work with Dr. Laurie Gold to leverage large Medicare data from CLEAR to examine the prevalence of spine pain amongst Medicare beneficiaries who reside in long term care. She will also describe patterns and predictors of receiving physical therapy treatment for spine pain for long-term care residents.
Rachel Prusynski, DPT, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Physical Therapy in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Washington. She is a physical therapist and board certified neurologic clinical specialist with research interests in quality and equity of rehabilitation care delivery. Her health services research agenda focuses on the intersections between health and reimbursement policy, therapy practice, and patient outcomes in post-acute care, specifically Skilled Nursing Facilities.