PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Improving Postamputation Rehabilitation for Seniors Researcher applies movement science principles and addresses health behaviors to optimize outcomes
O&P Almanac introduces individuals who have undertaken O&P-focused research projects. Here, you will get to know colleagues and healthcare professionals who have carried out studies and gathered quantitative and/ or qualitative data related to orthotics and prosthetics, and find out what it takes to become an O&P researcher.
OCTOBER 2021 | O&P ALMANAC
OR PHYSICAL THERAPIST AND
researcher Cory Christiansen, PhD, PT, working closely with colleagues early in his career led him down the path of O&P research. He recalls collaborating with local physical therapists and prosthetists in Colorado to identify why rates of community reintegration for older adults who had undergone lower-limb amputation were very low. “As we studied this problem, we identified a link between the lack of community reintegration and very poor physical function outcomes following rehabilitation,” Christiansen says. His doctorial training in exercise science from the University of Northern Colorado guided him to initially examine biomechanical mechanisms. However, “it was becoming clear to me that many issues beyond movement mechanics explained, at least in part, the poor function and high levels of disability we saw in the rehabilitation clinic,” he says. He expanded his research to assess potential factors of disability, such as chronic poor health behaviors, the influence of multiple comorbid health conditions, and limited continuity of care related to
lower-limb amputation rehabilitation. Today, Christiansen focuses on optimizing exercise and physical activity outcomes for a variety of populations with movement dysfunction, including patients with lower-limb amputation, in his roles as a professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Colorado (CU) in Aurora, Colorado, and as co-director of the Interdisciplinary Movement Science Lab at CU’s School of Medicine, where he leads a clinical trial research team. Christiansen also works with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). In his appointment as rehabilitation researcher at the VA Eastern Colorado Healthcare System, he directs the Movement Analysis Lab for the Rocky Mountain Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center. “In this lab, we work with older veterans in rehabilitation clinical trials,” he explains. More specifically, he leads the research arm of the Regional Amputation Center—one of seven such VA centers nationwide—where his team studies both in-person and telehealth rehabilitation interventions.
PHOTO: Cory Christiansen, PhD, PT
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