About Our Doctors

John F. Ditunno, Jr., MD

Researcher and Emeritus Project Director,
Regional Spinal Cord Injury Center of the Delaware Valley
Thomas Jefferson University Hospital

Ralph J. Marino, MD John F. Ditunno, Jr., MD Murray J. Cohen, MD Adam E. Flanders, MD Christopher S. Formal, MD Guy W. Fried, MD James S. Harrop, MD Ashwini D. Sharan, MD Patrick J. Shenot, MD Alexander R. Vaccaro, MD

Title: Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine
Jefferson Medical College
Thomas Jefferson University

Address: 132 S. 10th Street
375 Main Building
Philadelphia, PA 19107

Telephone: (215) 955-5580

Research: Publications

For more than three decades, Dr. John F. Ditunno, Jr., has devoted himself to physical medicine and rehabilitation. As a result, he is recognized as a leader in the field of spinal cord injury care, education and research.

From 1969-1997, Dr. Ditunno was Professor and Chairman of the Department of Rehabilitation, Jefferson Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University and, in 1987, he was appointed the Michie Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine. Dr. Ditunno also served as Chairman of the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. His current role is as a researcher for Thomas Jefferson University's Spinal Cord Injury Center of the Delaware Valley (RSCICDV). He became Emeritus Project Director in 2006, after serving as Project Directory of the RSCICDV since 1978.

In addition, Dr. Ditunno is currently a consultant for the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Department at Philadelphia's Magee Rehabilitation Hospital and, in the past, has been a consultant at numerous area hospitals including Lankenau Hospital, Albert Einstein Medical Center, the Medical Center of Wilmington, Delaware, Crozer-Chester Medical Center, Bryn Mawr Rehabilitation Hospital, and Wills Eye Hospital.

Since 1978, when the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) for the United States Department of Education underwrote the RSCICDV’s first project to develop a model system, Dr. Ditunno has been its principal investigator. In 1988, Dr. Ditunno was named Project Director when the same sponsor issued a grant for a seven-year study for a Rehabilitation Research and Training Center for Neural Recovery and Functional Enhancement. Several clinical studies occurred within that project, specifically research regarding motor recovery in cervical spinal cord injury patients and quadriparetic and paraparetic patients, functional skills of spinal cord injury patients, and the percutaneous cooling of the spinal cord as a mangement technique.

Over the years, Dr. Ditunno has been co-investigator on studies involving surgical approaches for spinal cord injury patients, the neurological and functional recovery after such injury and reinnervation of muscle. Dr. Ditunno was the chairman and editor of the "International Standards for Neurological and Functional Classification of Spinal Cord Injury," which provides a universal language for classifying persons with spinal cord injury that has been accepted by rehabilitation practitioners throughout the world.

Dr. Ditunno has been a member of peer review panels and advisory committees for various federal agencies including the Rehabilitation Services Administration, NIDRR, NIH, the Institute of Medicine and the Centers for Disease Control.

A distinguished lecturer, Dr. Ditunno has been invited to speak at many international functions, including the First International Neurotrauma Symposium in Japan and the Second meeting in Glasgow, Scotland. He has also spoken at the International Society of Paraplegia in Israel, was the Heiner Sell Lecturer at Toronto, Canada's American Spinal Injury Association meeting, and a Visiting Professor at Stanford University, California.

A former President of the Association of Academic Physiatrists and of the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Dr. Ditunno is now a member of both societies. His other professional memberships include the American Spinal Injury Association where he sits on the Research Committee, the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine, International Medical Society of Paraplegia and the Paralyzed Veterans of America. He is also on the Editorial Boards of Spinal Cord, Paraplegia, and the Journal of Neurotrauma.

Dr. Ditunno is a prolific author who has written hundreds of published chapters, papers, textbooks and abstracts throughout his medical career.

Education:

BS: St. Joseph College, Philadelphia, PA
MD: Hahnemann Medical College, Philadelphia, PA

Postgraduate Training:

Internship: Hahnemann Medical College, Philadelphia, PA
Residency: Jacobi Hospital, Albert Einstein Medical School, New York, NY
Fellowship: Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA

Board Certification:

Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Spinal Cord Injury Medicine