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Andrew Dubin, MD |
Welcome to Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation
Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation is a specialty that focuses on improving the ability of the patient to function in his/her environment. The primary goal of the PM&R residency program is to provide a clinical and educational experience that prepares the resident to responsibly care for patients requiring the service of a physiatrist. The residency training program at the Albany Medical Center includes two hospitals and two outpatient centers. The 631 bed Albany Medical Center is the primary teaching hospital of the Albany Medical College. The hospital is the tertiary care center for twenty five counties in upstate New York and it is the only level one trauma center. The hospital includes a twenty bed inpatient rehabilitation unit which is cert
ified by J.C.A.H.O. and the New York State Department of Health. The unit cares for about 700 patients per year. Residents on rotation at the Albany Medical Center serve on the inpatient unit and they provide consultations to acute medical, surgical, and pediatric units. The Medical College has an active clinic for outpatients and an amputee clinic. The Dept. of Physical Medicine shares the electodiagnostic laboratory with the Dept. of Neurology. The Samuel Stratton Veterans Affairs Hospital is licensed for 120 beds. Although there is no inpatient rehabilitation unit, the residents provide consultations to acute medical and surgical units; the vast majority of time is devoted to outpatient clinics. There is general physical medicine and rehabilitation clinic and amputee clinic. Electrodiagnostic testing is scheduled two full days per week.
The Center for The Disabled began in 1942 as a nursery for children with Cerebral Palsy. It now provides services for over 16,000 individuals with 300 different physical, neurological, cognitive and medical diagnoses. The center provides many services including physician services, therapy services, residential units, early intervention, pre-school and school age programs. The Center for the Disabled provides vocational rehabilitation, and sheltered employment. It provides a skilled nursing facility for individuals with severe disabilities. Residents attend clinic once a week for six months during the PGY-4 year. They have the opportunity to make site visits to any of the activities sponsored by the Center for the Disabled.
Northwoods Rehabilitation Center has a 36 bed traumatic brain injury unit for adults ages l9 and over providing interdisciplinary comprehensive care.
The Bone and Joint Center was established cooperatively by a group of university affiliated orthopedic surgeons and the Division of Orthopedic Surgery of the Albany Medical College. More than twenty orthopedists practice at the Bone and Joint Center. The center contains orthopedic offices, operating suites, and a large area for therapy services. Residents are expected to go to the Bone and Joint Center once a week for six months of their PGY-4 year. This is an excellent opportunity to learn musculoskeletal and sports medicine.
The department has an active research program. The department received a research grant from the NY State Department of Health to start a program in which functional electrical stimulation can help patients who have been paralyzed by spinal cord injury to stand and walk.
Albany Medical Center is only one of five centers in the world that can offer this technology. In addition, Dr. Dubin is evaluating the use of Botulinum Toxin to Improve Motor Control in the dominant spastic upper extremity in TBI patients to improve power wheel chair driving as well as participating in a research project with RPI in the development of a model of lumbar spine muscle fatigue and its influence on intradiscal pressures in the spinal column.
