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Arnold alumnus J.D. Donley is organizing clinic
November 30, 2009
Dr. J.D. Donley, who is organizing a geriatric mobility clinic on the campus of Palmetto Health, stands on a treadmill that can be use to improved the gait and balance of seniors.
Judy Baskins
Paul Beattie
Paul Eleazer
Palmetto Health and the Arnold School’s Physical Therapy Program have established a comprehensive clinic in downtown Columbia to study and treat mobility issues in South Carolina’s aging population.
The Palmetto Health-University of South Carolina Physical Mobility and Research Clinic is opening soon at Carolina Medical Plaza, 3010 Farrow Rd., Suite 120 on the east side of the Palmetto Health Richland Campus.
The clinic’s team is being organized by Palmetto Health physical therapist, Dr. Jonathan Donley, a faculty member at the USC School of Medicine. He is assembling a team of Palmetto Health and USC experts in physical therapy, geriatric medicine, nursing, exercise science and social work.
“Our plan is to tailor programs for patients based on research,” said Donley. The clinic will provide a forum to assess and apply the latest research techniques, including those that are not able to be applied in a traditional medical-model type facility, including time constraints and rehabilitation techniques.
The clinic will focus on three areas with the greatest impact on senior mobility:
- Falls – the leading cause of injury deaths for older adults;
- Stroke (neurological disorders) – the 3rd leading cause of death in South Carolina which has the highest death rate for the disease in the United States.
- Persistent back pain – a leading cause of activity-limitation for adults of all age groups.
Seniors are at special risk for death and disability from falls. “Twenty per cent of persons over 65 who fall and facture a hip have a 20 percent mortality risk within a year,” said Donley. Moreover hip fractures are extraordinarily expensive to treat, with a typical break resulting in cost exceeding $100,000 or more, he said.
But Donley said the clinic will have the means to increase the odds against seniors experiencing falls and in helping stroke victims recover their balance and mobility. “This process is best addressed by a team approach through assessing risk factors and identifying issues of seniors and areas known well to physicians, physical therapist, and social workers.
Decreased mobility is not a normal part of the aging process and what ability one has after a traumatic incident such as a stroke does not always mean that is all they will ever recover”, said Donley.
One technique is using virtual reality goggles to train patients to identify likely obstacles or situations fraught with fall hazards. Another technique is Intensive Mobility Training™ (IMT), developed by USC Physical Therapist Dr. Stacy Fritz. IMT involves having a patient perform skilled training that challenges balance and coordination over a two-week period for three hours per day.
Dr Paul Beattie, another member of the USC Physical Therapy Program, will use new patient management models for pain and disability to individualize therapies for patients suffering from back pain and arthritis.
The clinic is being funded by a $930,000 grant from the Duke Endowment and a gift from Columbia businessman Don Tomlin, whose donation helped purchase three state of the art physical therapy machines.
The clinic has been developed through a multi-institutional collaboration led by Judy Baskins, Palmetto Health’s director of administration for geriatric services; Dr. Bruce McClenaghan, director of the Arnold School’s physical therapy program and Dr. Paul Eleazer, director of Seniorsmart™ and director of geriatric medicine at USC School of Medicine.
As an affiliate of SeniorSMART, (Supporting Mobility, Activity, Rehabilitation, Technology/Transportation) the clinic participates in an initiative to create economic growth around the state through a network that includes research and development work at USC, Clemson, MUSC and at hospital and health care providers in Columbia, Greenville and Spartanburg.
Eleazer said SeniorSMART’s economic impact is expected to be nearly $29 million over a five-year period.
Donley, who received his doctorate from the USC Physical Therapy program in 2005, is an assistant professor of clinical internal medicine and adjunct professor of cell and developmental biology and anatomy at the school of medicine.
