Hospital for Special Surgery Announces New Physiatry Department

New York, NY—February 20, 2003

As the first department of its kind in the U.S., Hospital for Special Surgery announced today the establishment of a Physiatry department for non-operative musculoskeletal treatments of spine and sports injuries. This further solidifies HSS's leadership position in the treatment of musculoskeletal disorders.

"The creation of the Physiatry Department reaffirms our commitment to high quality patient care, teaching, and research in musculoskeletal medicine," said HSS President and CEO, John Reynolds. "The Department will be a great asset to everyone affiliated with the Hospital."

The chief of the newly formed department is Gregory Lutz, MD, who has been chair of the service for the past five years. The department has 10 physiatrists on staff, as well as two fellows and three residents. The Physiatry staff members include Paul Cooke, MD, Joseph Feinberg, MD, Stephen Geiger, MD, Svetlana Ilizarov, MD, Christopher Lutz, MD, Peter Moley, MD, Alexander Simotas, MD, Vijay Vad, MD and Jeffrey Young, MD.

Physiatrists at HSS treat patients who have spine and sports injuries as well as other musculoskeletal problems with non-operative procedures, such as IDET, Nucleoplasty, Radio frequency Ablation, and Fluoroscopic injection procedures as well as hip and knee lavage. (They combine these treatments with medically supervised exercise therapies to restore mobility and function.) The department is not only involved with the development of new non-invasive procedures, but also ongoing research.

"The Physiatry Service was formed to increase the scope of care in the Hospital and has already contributed to the quality of patient care through its growth in the last five years," said Dr. Lutz, Physiatrist-in-Chief at HSS. "As a department, we are fully committed to continuous research and education of future physiatrists in musculoskeletal medicine."

The Physiatrists at HSS perform innovative research to better understand and validate many non-operative or minimally invasive interventional procedures to treat sports and spinal injuries.

In 1947, Physiatry received recognition as a separate medical specialty. Most widely known as the field of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, the medical specialty of modern-day Physiatry comprises the related disciplines of Physical Medicine, Rehabilitation Medicine and Electromyography.