Newswise — Bethesda, Md – Retired Army Colonel Paul F. Pasquina, M.D., chief of the Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, and director of the Center for Rehabilitation Science Research at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) here, has been selected to chair the newly-established Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) in the F. Edward Hebert School of Medicine at USU.
The F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine is the nation’s only federal medical school, operated by the Department of Defense. The school’s medical students are active duty uniformed officers dedicated to career service in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Public Health Service. In addition to its traditional medical school curriculum, the F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine emphasizes instruction in tropical and infectious diseases, preventive medicine, the neurosciences (to include TBI and PTSD), disaster response and humanitarian assistance, and acute trauma care.
Pasquina is a 1987 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He received his medical degree from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in 1991, completed his internship at Eisenhower Medical Center in Augusta, GA, and his residency in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, DC in 1995. In addition to PM&R, he is board certified in Electrodiagnostic Medicine and Pain Medicine. He completed a fellowship in Primary Care Sports Medicine and remains interested in all aspects of musculoskeletal medicine, especially as it applies to individuals with disabilities. He currently serves as a consultant to numerous federal and non-federal agencies including the National Institutes of Health, Department of Veterans Affairs, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Institute of Medicine, U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command and the University of Pittsburgh School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences.
Pasquina has served as the specialty consultant to the Army Surgeon General for PM&R and as the Medical Advisor to the North Atlantic Regional Medical Command for quality healthcare. He has authored multiple textbooks, book chapters, journal articles and policy papers. He has received multiple military awards, as well as awards for teaching and mentorship, including the U.S. Army’s “A” Proficiency Designation for academic excellence, the Order of Military Medical Merit, Legion of Merit, da Vinci Lifetime Achievement Award, Partners in Progress Heroes of Military Medicine Award, Lewis Aspey Mologne Award, Alfred Mann Foundation Scientist of Year Award, and Honorary Fellow of the Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America (RESNA).
His leadership in amputee care contributed to Walter Reed being the first institution in the world to introduce the clinical use and evaluation of the first motorized lower limb prostheses, most sophisticated upper limb prostheses, and the first of its kind implantable microelectrodes to drive a prosthetic device. Pasquina also helped shape WRNMMC’s sports and recreational program, driving rehabilitation program, brain fitness lab, service animal program, creative arts in healthcare, interdisciplinary amputee and TBI clinics, satellite interventional pain suite, vocational and community reintegration programs, Computerized Rehabilitation Environment (CAREN), Wheelchair and Seating Clinic, and musculoskeletal ultrasound clinic. He was a principle planner in the programming and design of the WRNMMC America Building and the National Intrepid Center of Excellence for TBI and Behavioral Health on the Bethesda campus.
As the founding chair, Pasquina will develop a new USU department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation tailored to meet the specific needs of the military population, both in education and research.
“Dr. Pasquina is a gifted and trusted physician, researcher and educator with a solid history of contributions to our wounded, ill and injured troops, military and civilian medicine, and to the University,” said F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine dean Larry W. Laughlin, M.D., Ph.D. “He is the perfect choice to lead our new department. “
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