Why Join Our Mission

Waves of “vertical growth” at CU PM&R have produced new faculty, new service areas, and research lines. Our faculty have helped us broaden and develop important rehabilitation service areas including: cancer rehabilitation, amputation rehabilitation, physician-scientist pathways, rehabilitation and neuropsychology, pediatric rehabilitation in Colorado Springs, regenerative medicine at a new center at UCHealth Steadman Hawkins Inverness, pediatric pain and sports medicine, and community spine/MSK practices at CU Medicine Specialty Care Center in Longmont.

Among departments at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, CU PM&R is the largest educational house with nearly 200 trainees (DPT students, PhD candidates, PM&R residents and fellows) at any given time. We recently received accreditation to start a hybrid DPT degree program (which incorporates blocks utilizing 6 weeks of online education with 1-2 weeks of in-person education) adding 40 more students with our partners at University of Colorado- Colorado Springs. Having this large contingent of trainees truly makes us a “school within a school.”

Our research portfolio continues to blossom with a strong group of junior researchers; mid-career researchers (with several NIH awards and multiple VA merit awards); and senior researchers leading labs, centers, multicenter grants culminating in new rehabilitation knowledge.

-Venu Akuthota, MD, Chair, CU Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation