Hi! Welcome to the next best thing in Rehabilitation Medicine. VCU PM&R is where
it's all happening and you're just a click or two away from whatever you could
need. Whether you’re a practicing physiatrist, a resident physician, a medical
student, an educated consumer, or a Web surfer lost on an Internet wave, you’ll
find things of interest on our site … so explore away!
The roots of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Virginia
Commonwealth University are more than 100 years older than the field of PM&R
itself. We go back to the 1870s, with a direct linkage to the pioneering
Confederate army surgeon, Simon Baruch (an 1862 Medical College of Virginia
graduate). Dr. Baruch performed surgery here in the very same Egyptian Building
that I'm writing this from during the Civil War. The building that houses the
administrative offices of our Department was the first home of the Medical
College of Virginia School of Medicine in the late 1840's (my office here on the
4th floor was part of the anatomy lab) and then a Confederate Army hospital
during the Civil War. Dr. Baruch then left Virginia, went all around Europe
tasting and discovered the healing abilities of water (he was more about
drinking healthy water than soaking or hot-tubbing in it, but we'll stretch
history a bit to keep it in the PM&R family), developed the field of
Hydrotherapy, and then went on to help improve the sewer systems in New York
City. Ironically, when VCU PM&R was organized in 1947 and then became a formal
department in 1952 that established the first Rehabilitation Unit in Virginia at
MCV Hospital, we settled into the very same Egyptian Building! So through the
years, my office here on the 4th floor has been either a gross anatomy lab for
19th century medical students, an operating suite for the skilled hands of Dr.
Baruch as he salvaged wounded soldiers (and hopefully prepare them for
rehabilitation!), or a totally happening turn of the century AquaBar where Abe
Lincoln and Robert E. Lee sipped France's finest, pre-Perrier water. Based on
the vibe I get from my Buddha statues sitting on my shelf and the positive Chi
all around me, I'm thinking more along the lines of the Water Bar and thinking
we've been doing it right here in the Egyptian Building for more than 170 years!
To add to all of these coincidences, the Baruch family's connections to PM&R is
even deeper, since the department was initially funded and the Egyptian Building
was later renovated using funds from the philanthropist Bernard M. Baruch, in
honor of his father, Simon Baruch! Kinda weird and a bit scary, but so far so
good.
I’ve been blessed to be with the department since August 1991, first as head of
the Consultation Service, then as medical director in 1994, Chair since 1998,
Executive Director of VCU-CERSE (www.cerse.vcu.edu) since 2006 and as the VA's
National Director for PM&R since 2009. The VCU Health System (MCV Hospital,
Children's Hospital of Richmond , McGuire VAMC, VCU Spine Center , and so much
more) is a great place to begin a career, get interdisciplinary training, and
develop into a true academician. Our department has provided state-of-the-art
PM&R academics, research and patient care for decades!
The department currently provides medical directorship to three adult inpatient
Rehabilitation Units, one adult subacute rehabilitation unit, and two pediatric
rehabilitation units, outpatient care at five locations, electrodiagnostic
services at four outpatient locations, consultations at three Richmond hospitals
and four nursing homes. Our research programs at the VCU-Center for
rehabilitation Sciences and Engineering (VCU-CERSE) are a 4-school,
9-department, 67 member, interdisciplinary consortium with more than $16 million
a year in grant and contract research sponsorship in all areas of disability
research, resulting in more than 50 publications and 200 presentations a year.
We are proud to provide PM&R leadership to the nation's premiere Veterans
Administration programs in Polytrauma, TBI, SCI, Amputation, Assistive
Technology, Parkinsons disease, Epilepsy Care, and Interventional Pain/Spine
Care at the McGuire VAMC. We consistently train some of the strongest residents
and fellows in the nation, and have alumni throughout the academic and private
world. All these strengths combined have earned us the distinction of a U.S.
News & World Report Top PM&R Program!
So, go ahead and check us out! Feel free to e-mail or call me if I can be of any
help to you. The same is true of any of our faculty. If you’re an alumnus and
would like to be included in our directory, just send us your information, and
we’ll get you linked up. If you’re in another department or related
field/specialty and would like to be linked to our page, just send us your
information.
David X. Cifu, M.D.
Mediterranean Rehabilitationist Extraordinaire
dcifu@vcu.edu
Follow links below for more information on other VCU Departments