CURRICULUM VITAE - The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute

Hillel M. Finestone 6
Stroke Rehabilitation
RESEARCH
I have concentrated on three key research areas that complement my clinical involvement as a
physiatrist with a special interest in stroke rehabilitation: 1) nutrition and stroke, 2) driving and
stroke, and 3) virtual reality exercise therapy in the stroke survivor.
1. Nutrition and stroke
In 1990, I designed a prospective research project designed to study nutritional aspects
of all stroke patients admitted to the London University Hospital Rehabilitation Unit.
Internal funding support was received and a research assistant was hired. Over the years,
several abstracts and a book chapter were published, culminating in the much-cited
publications “Malnutrition in stroke patients on the rehabilitation service and at followup:
prevalence and predictors” (1995) (148 citations) and “Prolonged length of stay and
reduced functional rate improvement in malnourished rehabilitation stroke patients”
(1996) (97 citations), both in the Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. I
authored a chapter on nutrition and diet in neurological rehabilitation in a reference
textbook entitled Principles of Neurologic Rehabilitation (McGraw-Hill, New York,
1998).
I received funding from the Heart and Stroke Foundation (HSF) ($99,704 over 2 years,
starting in July 1996) for a project on the nutritional status and metabolic requirements
of stroke survivors. An HSF grant was awarded to me for the project “Acute phase
reactants and loss of muscle mass following stroke” ($68,022 over 2 years, starting July
1, 1999). As Principal Investigator, these grants enabled me to further my research on
metabolic issues in stroke. Research was continued at the University of Ottawa and
culminated in publication in 2003 of the original article “Measuring longitudinally the
metabolic demands of stroke patients” in Stroke. I continue to be asked to review the
topic of nutrition and dysphagia in stroke as a result of my research and clinical
experience. A 2003 review article in CMAJ is highly cited. I coauthored a book chapter
entitled “Malnutrition after stroke” for a major US textbook, Stroke Recovery and
Rehabilitation, published in January 2009 by Demos Medical Publishing, New York; I
am currently updating this chapter.
2. Driving and stroke
On my arrival in Ottawa in 2000 I became intrigued with the innovative driving research
that I was exposed to through faculty members such as colleague and physiatrist
Dr. Shawn Marshall. I became a member of Candrive (Canadian Driving Research
Initiative for Vehicular Safety in the Elderly), and after pilot work on a driving database
at The Ottawa Hospital Rehabilitation Centre, it was clear that the area of driving and
stroke required further study. I received summer student funding from the University of
Ottawa Faculty of Medicine for 2 years (2004 and 2005). I was then awarded 3 years of
funding from the HSF in 2005 and 2007 for the project “Driving post-stroke: a