Alumni Spotlight – Chetan Phadke, Ph.D.

ChetanFollowing graduation, Chetan completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Queen’s University in Canada before joining the West Park Hospital in Toronto as a Scientist. West Park hired Chetan with an explicit mandate to develop the research program in 2010. The clinician’s at West Park were full of research ideas, but needed dedicated research leadership on multiple fronts to enact these ideas. Structures were set up to provide research experience for medical, pre-med, kinesiology, OT, and PT students, medical residents as well as research volunteers. With start-up funding from West Park Foundation, and grant money from competitive external funding agencies, the program was equiped with basic equipment and initiated multiple pilot studies. Gaps in specific clinical areas of spasticity management were addressed by successfully publishing systematic reviews in leading rehab journals. Status appointments for Chetan as an Assistant Professor in University Toronto and an Adjunct Professor in York University has allowed developing partnerships within Toronto. Collaborations with researchers with common interests in North America and across the world are currently being developed. West Park has a prolific spasticity management clinic and the research program compliments the clinic and works in partnership with physiatrists, therapists, and nurses. Spasticity research at West Park focuses on measurement and treatment of spasticity and the impact of spasticity on function. Chetan also teaches neurophysiology courses in Department of Physical Therapy in University of Toronto.