Professor

Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Department of Pediatrics

Chicago, Illinois

Deborah Gaebler-Spira completed a pediatric residency at the University of Chicago and then pursued rehabilitation and physical medicine at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago to combine pediatrics and rehabilitation. She is board certified in Pediatrics, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine. She has been affiliated with Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Children’s Memorial Hospital and the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago for 25 years.

Clinical work has been in outpatient and inpatient rehabilitation with cerebral palsy, brain injury, spinal cord injury and spasticity management. She has played an active role in community involvement for the disabled in Chicago, including advisory board member for National Easter Seals, Pathways Awareness Foundation, consultant to the Board of Education, advisory positions for the NIDRR grants from Outcome Analysis at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.

Her commitment to her work has extended to the national level, acting as a Board of Director and past president for the American Academy of Cerebral Palsy, Cerebral Palsy International Research Board and an Associate Member of the ABPMR developing the first board exam for PRM. She has been part of the NIH taskforce on Childhood motor disorders.

Her research interests have been involved with the management of spasticity and have obtained UCP grants to evaluate the impact of Botulinum Toxins on the child as well as dance for motor learning and the child with cerebral palsy. She has collaborated with the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago Bioengineers on measurement of Hypertonia which was supported by NIDRR. Recently she has been Principle investigator with the multicenter PODS Baclofen Efficacy Safety Trial.