Monica Verduzco-Gutierrez, MD – The Long Road to Awareness: Breaking down barriers in long covid research
In Upcoming Conversations by Mark Sylvester
/
01/25/2023
register for this conversationMay 31, 2023 04:00 PM in Pacific Time
The Long Road to Awareness: Breaking down barriers in long covid research
There is irrefutable data on the underpinnings of post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 (aka Long COVID). However, despite the burgeoning research on the topic, it has taken some time for the medical community and the general public to recognize the existence and severity of Long Covid. This is partly because the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 is not fully understood, other post-infectious disease states were underfunded, and also because the symptoms of Long Covid can be difficult to quantify and are often invisible to others.
Monica Verduzco-Gutierrez, MD
Dr. Monica Verduzco-Gutierrez is an accomplished academic Physiatrist, Professor, and Distinguished Chair of the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at the Long School of Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. She is also the Medical Director of Critical Illness Recovery and Neuro Rehabilitation at Warm Springs Rehabilitation Hospitals in San Antonio and Chief of the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation service line at the University Health Hospital system. She is a fellow member of the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and on the Association of Academic Physiatrists' board of trustees.
Dr. Gutierrez excitedly moved to San Antonio to lead the distinguished Department of Rehabilitation Medicine in 2020. Her area of clinical expertise is the care of patients with traumatic brain injury, stroke rehabilitation, interventional spasticity management, and now post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 (PASC). During the COVID-19 pandemic, she developed two Post-COVID Recovery Clinics to aid in rehabilitating patients with functional, mobility, and cognitive deficits after infection with COVID-19. She has over 100 publications in these areas and topics related to health equity and inclusion. She is also a sub-investigator in the NIH RECOVER trial through her institution, one of 17 hubs in the country to be part of the initiative to study Long COVID.
