Rachel Prusynski, DPT, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, UW School of Medicine
Co-Director, ASPIRe Lab
Biography:
Rachel Prusynski is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Physical Therapy in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Washington. Her health services research agenda focuses on the intersections between health and reimbursement policy, therapy practice, and patient outcomes in post-acute care, specifically Skilled Nursing Facilities and Home Health. She is a board certified clinical specialist in Neurologic Physical Therapy with over a decade of clinical experience across the continuum from ICU to community-based care. Her experience in Haiti and in the U.S. working with low-income older adults guides her research interests in quality of care and equity for historically marginalized communities. Dr. Prusynski has been funded as a Learning Health System scholar with BAYADA Home Health and as co-investigator of the NIA Post-Acute Care Policy Impact Study. In addition to the NIA and CHWS, her research has also been funded by the Foundation for Physical Therapy Research, the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA), and the National Center for Advancing Translational Health Sciences. She serves her profession through multiple APTA roles, including as Associate Editor for PTJ: Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Journal and as an appointed member of the Public Policy and Advocacy Committee. She is the 2022 winner of the 2022 APTA Dorothy Briggs Memorial Scientific Inquiry Award and was named the 2024 APTA Washington Physical Therapist of the Year.