Diana Cardenas MD, MHA, professor and chair of the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Miami, gave the keynote speech during the Patricia C. Gregory MD Memorial Lecture in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation on June 1, 2012. Her lecture was entitled, "Establishing a Clinical Research Portfolio."

Dr. Cardenas

Dr. Cardenas is the Principal Investigator of the NIDRR-funded South Florida Spinal Cord Injury Model System (H133N110003), the Program Director of the Spinal Cord Injury Medicine Fellowship, and the Chief of Service of Rehabilitation Medicine at Jackson Memorial Rehabilitation Hospital in Miami, Florida. Among other accomplishments, she has published 117 peer-reviewed manuscripts, authored numerous chapters, and has edited or co-edited seven books.

Other presentations by UNC PM&R residents, T-32 fellows and visiting scholars followed Dr. Cardenas' lecture.

View the entire agenda here.

The keynote lecture honors Patricia C. Gregory, MD, who proudly served as a Simmons Scholar and assistant professor at UNC PM&R from 2005 until her untimely passing in 2010. Dr. Gregory developed a love and passion for research in health disparities, particularly in the areas of stroke prevention and rehabilitation, and geriatric rehabilitation. She was awarded prestigious grants form the Duke Endowment and the Agency for Healthcare Research Quality (AHRQ) to support her STAR (Stroke Telemedicine Access Recovery) Project. She published many research articles in national and international journals. Most recently, an article was published posthumously in the July 2011 issue of PM&R, highlighting her pioneer work in stroke telemedicine.

Read more about Dr. Gregory and her Memorial Fund.