Smita Rao, scholar in residence in the Department of Physical Therapy, Rochester Center, has received the Postdoctoral Fellowship Award from the Arthritis Foundation to study midfoot arthritis.
This competitive award of $50,000 per year is renewable for up to three years and is the latest of three awards approved for Rao that provide funding to examine how specialized shoe inserts change foot pressures and movement patterns, and ultimately improve patients’ pain and function.
Rao joined the department in August 2006 following the completion of her doctoral work at the University of Iowa. She is the department’s first scholar in residence and postdoctoral fellow. Since she joined the department, she received a $10,000 grant from the American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society as the principal investigator, and was co-principal investigator (with professor Deborah Nawoczenski) in a $10,000 award from the New York State chapter of the Arthritis Foundation.
Rao will study patients with midfoot arthritis who have difficulty walking. In addition to her full-time research responsibilities in the department's Movement Analysis Laboratory, she also supervises graduate physical therapy student research projects. She also assists in classroom and laboratory experiences related to the study of pathological movement.
Rao has been an excellent addition to the research and teaching activities of the physical therapy program. Physical therapy professor Deborah Nawoczenski serves as Rao's faculty mentor.
