MiFF’s largest grant is already building a doctoral program at Johns Hopkins to create the leaders, educators, and researchers urgently needed in the field.
Amputee care has a quiet problem: almost no one is trained to lead it. Few doctoral programs anywhere focus on rehabilitation science with a real emphasis on limb loss, and so the field has too few people qualified to direct its training programs, teach the next generation of clinicians, and publish the research that justifies the care patients receive.
Closing that gap is the reason for MIFF's largest project to date.
There were few, if any, programs actually focusing on rehabilitation science, with an emphasis on amputee care.
— Charles Dankmeyer, MIFF chair
MIFF made a million-dollar donation to Johns Hopkins to help build something that didn't exist: a Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) in Rehabilitation Science, in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, with a focus on limb loss and mobility. It is the largest single commitment the fund has made — the bulk of its work so far — and the program is now up and running, accepting its first applications.
The program is deliberately different from MIFF's scholar awards. Where our scholarship awards fund individual researchers, the Hopkins program is built for clinicians who are already practicing. It runs almost entirely online, around the schedules of working professionals, and it opens a door that stays shut without a doctorate: you cannot direct a program training prosthetists, orthotists, physical therapists, or physicians unless you hold a doctoral degree yourself.
"We don't have the individuals trained as doctors of science to be the leaders, the educators, and the researchers who work inside amputee care," says Charles Dankmeyer, MIFF's chair. "We need those people — to train orthotists and prosthetists, to lead the educational programs, and to do the research and the publications we need in order to justify the services we provide."
The idea is to take clinicians and make them the field's next generation of leaders. As Marlís González-Fernández, M.D., Ph.D., of the department described it, the program is built for range — training "students from diverse backgrounds such as PT, OT, SLP, orthotists, prosthetists, psychologists, or physicians interested in rehabilitation topics related to prosthetics and orthotics."
Inside the program is a scholarship named for a pioneer of the field. Charles "Herb" Dankmeyer was himself a bilateral below-knee amputee who, in 1954, founded Dankmeyer, Inc. — a prosthetic and orthotic practice with a unique model designed to deliver the most current care to amputees. He spent his working life advancing limb-loss care from the inside.
His son, Charles Dankmeyer, now chairs MIFF, and gave the Hopkins scholarship his father's name — so a program built to train the field's next leaders in limb-loss care carries the name of a man who spent his own life advancing it.
The Charles "Herb" Dankmeyer Scholars Program provides full tuition for up to two students each year — clinical prosthetists and orthotists whose scholarly work has strong potential to advance the field through education, leadership, or clinical research. Applicants to the D.Sc. program can apply for it at the same time, by submitting an essay.
This investment initiates a new, transformative chapter in our Department's history at Johns Hopkins.
— Pablo Celnik, M.D., then Director, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
While developing the DrSc program an unforeseen opportunity arose. The chance to establish fellowships that complement amputee care. Hopkins announced:
The Johns Hopkins Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R), in partnership with the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, offers a one-year limb loss fellowship for physicians specializing in rehabilitation and related fields.
For the Mobility is Freedom Fund this represents a milestone in advancing clinical education for amputee care. We anticipate that as this concept gains traction in the academic community, more programs across multiple disciplines will be developed. Again, supporting MiFF's mission to improve access to multidisciplinary care.
The scholarship is deliberately built to outlast any one gift: two full scholarships a year, in perpetuity, inside a doctorate designed to turn working professional prosthetists and orthotists into the people who lead, teach, and publish. It is enrolling students now.
