Lynn Snyder-Mackler, Alumni Distinguished Professor of Physical Therapy, has spent the past two decades developing evidence-based approaches to the rehabilitation of knee injuries.
Now, her dedication and track record of accomplishment have been recognized with a prestigious MERIT (Method to Extend Research in Time) Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The elite award, given at the discretion of the NIH, provides up to 10 years of research funding.
Snyder-Mackler’s work has focused on knee, shoulder and spine rehabilitation, but she is perhaps best known for her work on anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries.
Most recently, she and her research team have collaborated with researchers and clinicians at Oslo University Hospital in Norway in the development of a screening procedure to provide clinicians with treatment options, including non-surgical alternatives, that may improve function after ACL injury and reconstruction. In Norway, no one has reconstructive surgery without first undergoing at least three months of rehabilitation.
A delay in surgery enables some people, a group Snyder-Mackler calls copers, to regain knee stability simply through neuromuscular training. But which people fall into that category and which are non-copers? And can non-copers become copers — and vice versa — through rehabilitative therapy?
A collaboration over the past five years with Prof. May Arna Risberg and orthopedic surgeon Dr. Lars Engebresen in Oslo has provided considerable evidence to support the hypothesis that there is a differential response to ACL injury and that this response can be affected by rehabilitation. Stability strategies also can change, with non-copers becoming more stable, and potential copers becoming unstable.
Snyder-Mackler’s research makes a strong argument for a period of rehabilitation for all ACL patients, but she hopes to do additional studies in what she calls a “waiting list” country, where surgery is delayed for as long as 18 months to two years.
“That could tell us even more about what happens to copers and non-copers over time and what rehabilitation strategies are most effective,” she says. “Ultimately, our goal is to obtain data that will not only guide future research but also have a direct impact on clinician and patient decision making.”