Woodbridge Resident Lauded with National Award

Woodbridge resident and Gaylord Specialty Healthcare Director of Spinal Cord Injury Program David Rosenblum, MD, was honored by the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (AAPM&R) – the premier medical society for physical medicine and rehabilitation doctors – with the 2023 PM&R Awareness and Value Award.

The AAPM&R Awards Committee unanimously agreed that Dr. Rosenblum deserved the inaugural award for “raising, with distinction, the awareness and value of the specialty through his work and activities.”

The committee cited his numerous contributions to the field of physical medicine and rehabilitation (also known as physiatry), noting that Dr. Rosenblum has improved the function and quality of life of countless patients with spinal cord injuries throughout New England and beyond and has propelled Gaylord Specialty Healthcare to the national forefront of clinical care, rehabilitation, and research.

Dr. Rosenblum was drawn to physiatry – a branch of medicine that diagnoses and treats conditions resulting in temporary or permanent loss of function – after witnessing the field’s impact on the quality of life of those recovering from life-altering illnesses or injuries.

Board-certified in physical medicine and rehabilitation and additionally certified in spinal cord injury as well as brain injury medicine, Dr. Rosenblum joined Gaylord Specialty Healthcare in 1992.

As Director of Gaylord’s Spinal Cord Injury Program, Dr. Rosenblum led Gaylord to be an early adopter of exoskeleton robotic technology to enable people with paralysis to stand and walk and was one of the first in the nation to use the intrathecal baclofen pump to treat severe spasticity.

Dr. Rosenblum has been the research site director at Gaylord Hospital as part of the Model Spinal Cord Injury Systems, most recently with the Spaulding New England Regional Spinal Cord Injury Model System where he is the Co-Director of Clinical Care.

In 2020, he became Medical Director for Gaylord’s Milne Institute for Healthcare Innovation, a hub for accelerating world-class rehabilitative research.

Dr. Rosenblum was also instrumental in developing Connecticut’s first physiatry residency program and is the program’s Associate Program Director and Site Director for the resident rotations at Gaylord Hospital. He is also an Associate Clinical Professor of Orthopaedics & Rehabilitation at Yale University School of Medicine.

“For more than 20 years, I have had the pleasure of seeing the impact that Dave has on his patients’ lives,” said Sonja LaBarbera, President and CEO of Gaylord Specialty Healthcare.

“His dedication to excellence and innovation coupled with his innate ability to connect with his patients makes him an inspiring physician. Dave has committed his career to improving the lives of those with spinal cord injury and I am thrilled that he has been recognized with this prestigious and very deserving honor.”

Calling the award “both an immense honor and privilege,” Dr. Rosenblum said he is “so fortunate to be part of an interdisciplinary team and a state-of-the-art center and programming that continuously elevates the understanding and value of physiatry across healthcare.”