MetroHealth Named One of 15 National Rehabilitation Innovation Centers

The MetroHealth Rehabilitation Institute has been named a Rehabilitation Innovation Center by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). MetroHealth is among only 15 rehabilitation centers in the country (and one of two in Ohio) recognized by the Department of Health and Human Services for providing inpatient care for individuals with highly complex medical conditions, conducting multidisciplinary rehabilitation research and recognition for excellence in education.

The Dr. Joanne Smith Memorial Rehabilitation Innovation Centers Act of 2022 was passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Biden in early 2023. It created a designation recognizing rehabilitation facilities that are leaders in medical research and treatment of complex cases, and that drive innovative research.

“To be mentioned alongside these other big players within the field is a significant honor,” says Richard Wilson, MD, Chair of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) and Co-Director of The MetroHealth Center for Rehabilitation Research. “This recognition is possible because of the mission of the MetroHealth System that includes a commitment to research and education to augment the clinical care we provide to our patients with disabilities.”

MetroHealth Rehabilitation Institute researchers include members from the departments of PM&R, Orthopedics, Neurosurgery, Plastic Surgery and Urology.

Part of the legal definition of a Rehabilitation Innovation Center is that it holds federal rehabilitation research and is a Model System for Traumatic Brain Injury or Spinal Cord Injury from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research. The Northeast Ohio Spinal Cord Injury System (NORSCIS) program, which MetroHealth operates with Case Western Reserve University, is one of only 18 federally designated Spinal Cord Injury Model Systems Centers in the nation. Dr. Smith, after whom the bill was named, was the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Chicago.

The Department of PM&R at Case Western Reserve University, based at the MetroHealth Rehabilitation Institute, has been among the top three PM&R departments in U.S. medical schools in the amount of research funding from the National Institutes of Health for five of the last six years. The Institute presently ranks second in the nation in National Institutes of Health funding for rehabilitation research.