Welcome

Welcome to the UPR Medical School Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Residency Program.

ACGME recognized that Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation is the medical specialty with focuses on the diagnoses, evaluation, and management of person of all ages with physical and/or cognitive impairments, disabilities and functional limitations.  Training in PM&R should emphasize a team approach to the patient management with the goal of achieving a maximal restoration or development of physical, psychological, social, occupational, vocational and avocational functions in persons whose abilities have been limited by disease, trauma, congenital disorders or pain.  Indeed, Ian B. Martin in the Preface of his book Current Diagnosis and Treatment-Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation establish: “Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) is a unique field.  We have no anatomic region to claim as our terrain, thus we tend to treat the patient as whole.  In PM&R we emphasize functional improvement, and strive to maximize independence, quality of life, mobility, and function.”

The residency program at the UPR Medical School has a long-standing tradition of excellence, graduating outstanding members of our medical community.  Physiatry as a specialty has a very strong presence in rehabilitation management of acute and chronic conditions, and electrodiagnostic testing in Puerto Rico. The goals of our residency program are to prepare resident physicians to be competent and proficient in the core competencies of the specialty that would allow them to provide high quality rehabilitation care and practice independently once they finish their residency; gain experience and demonstrate growth in patient care and practice medicine with progressive responsibilities and greater independence in PM&R; in addition, to promote a professional and humanistic approach to patient care and education.

The UPR Medical School PM&R Residency Program is a four-year program. The first year is a flexible internship.  In the second year of training the resident begins his/her thirty-six (36) months of PM&R training.  Our affiliate institutions include the Adult University Hospital, University Pediatric Hospital, Health South Rehabilitation Hospital, and UPR Hospital; and participating institutions are San Juan Veteran Administration Hospital, Dr. Isaac Gonzalez-Martinez Oncology Hospital, Center for Sports Health and Exercise Sciences of the Olympic Training Center, and Muscular Dystrophy Association Clinic at Auxilio Mutuo Hospital.  Those institutions are teaching hospitals or centres where resident education is a top priority.  Our program is committed to recognize changes and up-to-date developments in the fields of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and implementing teaching methodologies that would assure our graduates to practice exemplary rehabilitation medicine in a continuous changing environment.

I am proudly express that we have an excellent training program and our residents have the best education for the reasons that we have great residents, outstanding teaching faculty and a great diversity of our patient population.  Thank you for your interest in our PM&R residency program and once more, WELCOME to one of the best PM&R programs.

 

Sincerely,

 

Carmen E. Lopez-Acevedo, MD

Residency Program Director
Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Department of Physical Medicine, Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine
University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine