Northeast Health Sunnyview Rehabilitation Hospital

About Northeast Health Sunnyview Rehabilitation Hospital

Dr. Shapiro has been the Medical Director of the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Service Center of Excellence at Northeast Health Sunnyview Rehabilitation Hospital since 1989. This program treats both inpatients and outpatients. Over 350-400 inpatients and outpatients per year are seen in the Brain Injury Center of Excellence. The individuals evaluated and treated in the center represent a wide variety of brain injuries representing all age groups. Injuries include traumatic injuries as a result of motor vehicle accidents as well as work related and sports related injuries.

Management of patients is comprehensive and functionally based. Treatment involves representatives of all rehabilitative disciplines including physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, therapeutic recreation, nursing, case management and neuropsychology.

From the point of view of long term follow up, Dr. Shapiro has had an intimate partnership with the neuropsychologists at Northeast Health Sunnyview Hospital in assisting brain injury survivors to reach their maximum potential in social, vocational and recreational endeavors.

Dr. Shapiro received his MD from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in 1985. Prior to that, however, he received his Masters degree in Exercise Physiology and Sports Sciences at the University of Michigan. In his pre-medical training, he had extensive experience in evaluating athletes for a variety of performance related activities. This helped form the foundation of his progression towards a medical degree working in the field of physical medicine and rehabilitation.

Over the past 18 years as the Medical Director of Brain Injury Rehabilitation Services, he has directed treatment of a wide variety of brain injury survivors from the so-called 'mild concussive injuires' to the more severe impaired patients in a minimally conscious state.

At this time Dr. Shapiro and the Brain Injury Center of Excellence at Northeast Health Sunnyview are working to establish a new clinic that will be focused on the evaluation, assessment and direction of treatment for individuals sustaining mild traumatic brain injuries. The focus of this will be on sports related injuries, however other causes of concussion may easily be included into the treatment protocol established in the clinic. This clinic will be focused on providing a sophisticatied assessment of athletes and workers and provide an expert level of direction in reestablishing safe recovery and return to competition , work and/or instrumental activities of daily living.

Community Work and Involvement

Dr. Shapiro has provided a wide variety of community related services. In addition to working in a clinic for the developmentally disabled (OD Heck Center), he has provided consultative services locally to the District Attorney of Albany County and a variety of insurance and legal organizations with regards to issues associated with brain injury and its effect on individual's capabilities to function.

He has had extensive continuing education experiences in a variety of brain injury conferences over the past 20 years.

He is the Medical Director of a Brain Injury Rehabilitation Center of Excellence that has consistently maintained CARF and JCAHO certification.

ImPACT History:

The focus of the new clinic at Sunnyview Rehabilitation Center will be the development of a program of assessment for young athletes in the local high schools and colleges. This assessment will involve use of the ImPACT (Immediate Post Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing). This will be used as a baseline tool on which to measure the effects of any suspected concussion sustained during competition during athletic events.

As a part of the process of developing this program, we intend to provide educational background to relevant participants including school principals, physical educators, coaches as well as athletic directors and parents whose children are invloved in high school and other non-school related competitive and informal athletic activities.

The ImPACT testing is a tool that has been developed through the research of the Univeristy of Pittsburgh Sports Medicine Program and has been well studied and well researched. At the present time this is a tool that is becoming ever more prominent in the assessment of professional and highly competitive athletes. At this time ImPACT is contracted for use by the National Football League, the National Hockey League, the NBA, major league baseball as well as major league baseball umpires.

This test is a brief (20) minute computerized test that assesses neurocognitive function in a wide variety of domains, and is sensitive beyond the level of a detailed physical neurologic exam and provides objective feedback regarding an individual's impairment and recovery. These factors are the foundation in assessing concussions in athletes and all patients and provide a quantitative method for determining safety for return to competition, work and/or instrumental activities of daily living.