Thank you for your interest in the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  I invite you to explore this website for information about our department's education and training programs, patient care and clinical specialty areas, ongoing research projects as well as our dedicated faculty and staff.

The Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (PM&R) became an autonomous department at the University of Minnesota in 1952 and continues to this day in its mission of providing excellence in patient care, education and research in medical rehabilitation.

We have a number of respected educational and training programs including medical student clerkships, a residency program in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Physiatry fellowships, professional doctoral and transitional professional doctoral programs in Physical Therapy, master’s and doctoral programs in Rehabilitation Science and a master’s degree program in Occupational Therapy.

Research is an important component of our department.  We have a group of highly qualified occupational therapy, physical therapy, neuropsychology and physician faculty who provide state of the art research environments for training young professionals.  The strengths of the department are in the existing research partnerships among training faculty within the department and collaboration across departments.  These partnerships are constructed around five primary research themes: (1) Stroke Recovery, (2) Musculo-skeletal Injuries,  (3) Postural Control,  (4) Muscle Adaptation and (5) Outcomes of Therapeutic Intervention.  We have also collaborated with industry on various clinical trials on the use of botulinum neurotoxins in management of dystonia, spastic bladder and numerous painful conditions.

We provide a full spectrum of clinical rehabilitation services, including, inpatient rehabilitation care at University of Minnesota Medical Center, a division of Fairview, Riverside Campus, as well as outpatient clinical care at several clinical sites; including those on the University and Riverside campuses of Fairview University Medical Center. 

Please select from the table of contents on the left to find out more about our department.  We hope you will find this site helpful and informative. 

Best wishes,

Dennis Dykstra, M.D., Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Chair
Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation