A recent news release notes that Vista, Calif-based company DJO Global has renewed its membership in the Foundation for Physical Therapy’s Partners in Research program as a Platinum Level Partner, providing a donation of $20,000 directed to the Center of Excellence (COE) Initiative.

The release states that the Foundation awarded the $2.5 million Center of Excellence grant during the American Physical Therapy Association’s (APTA) Combined Sections meeting in February to Linda Resnik, PT, PhD, of Brown University, to establish the Multi-site Center on Health Services Training and Research, or CoHSTAR.

CoHSTAR will serve as a multidisciplinary Center dedicated to advancing health policy research capacity in physical therapy. The release explains that specifically, CoHSTAR will offer the multi-institutional research and training program in conjunction with Boston University and the University of Pittsburgh. Brown, the release notes, will provide leadership and administration, while all three universities will work together with a three-part focus on analysis of large data sets, rehabilitation outcomes measurement, and implementation science and quality assurance.

According to the release, the Foundation has raised more than $3 million to fund a Center of Excellence, and to support research grants and scholarships through its internal funding mechanism.

Barbara Connolly, PT, DPT, EdD, FAPTA, emphasizes in the release that the Foundation is “so grateful to DJO Global for their ongoing support and for this generous donation.”

In the changing healthcare environment, the importance for research to prove efficacy and to improve patient outcomes has never been greater, says Dwayne Hofstatter, senior vice president of Global Business & Professional Relations, Recovery Sciences at DJO Global and incoming Foundation trustee.

“At DJO Global, we believe ‘Motion is Medicine’ and support initiatives that keep people active, and moving. We challenge others in the industry to step up and offer any support they can to help advance the efforts of the Foundation for Physical Therapy and its cause,” Hofstatter notes in the release.

[Source: Foundation for Physical Therapy]