Dr. Berk will take the first 15 minutes to say a few words about his career as a physician. For the remaining 45 minutes, LECOM student attendees will have the opportunity to ask Dr. Berk questions about caring for patients who have acute neurological injuries in clinical practice.
Bradford C. Berk, MD, PhD (1981) grew up, studied medicine, and forged his career in Rochester, NY. After chairing the Department of Medicine, serving as chief of Cardiology, and founding and directing the Aab Cardiovascular Research Institute, he became CEO and senior vice president for Health Sciences at the University of Rochester Medical Center in 2006.
Three years later, in 2009, Dr. Berk suffered a severe spinal cord injury in a bicycle accident. Faced with paralysis and chronic neurologic pain, he committed himself not only to his own recovery but also to helping others to recover from their own acute neurological injuries (stroke, spinal cord injury, and traumatic brain injury). Within nine months, he was back at his post as CEO, and in 2014 he stepped down to found the University of Rochester Neurorestoration Institute, whose mission is “To bring the highest quality and most innovative approaches to restore function in individuals who have suffered damage to their brain, spinal cord, and/or peripheral nerves.” His specialties now include neurorehabilitation, pain medicine, stroke, spinal cord injury, and brain injury medicine.
Dr. Berk has published over 300 articles, chapters, and books, including Getting Your Brain and Body Back: Everything You Need to Know after Spinal Cord Injury, Stroke, or Traumatic Brain Injury, in 2021. In his foreword to this book, he observes, “My spinal cord injury changed my view of the patient-physician relationship, the value of mind-body approaches to medicine, and the very meaning of life.”