Zahra Kadivar

Zahra Kadivar
Baylor College of Medicine, Baylor Plaza Houston, USA

Biography

Dr. Zahra Kadivar has received Bachelor’s degree in physical therapy from Shriaz University of Medical Sciences in Iran, in 2003. Having worked as a physical therapist and shared in many people’s lives and witnessing lack of evidence based practice in many physical therapy clinics, inspired me to step into the research field. As a clinician she was able to have a part in health improvement of many patients, as a scientist she was able to help establish proper methods of care. Immediately after receiving my Bachelor’s degree I moved to U.S.A to pursue higher education. She has started a PhD program in Rehabilitation Sciences at University of Kansas Medical Center (KUMC) in August 2004 where I worked with stroke patients to help them gain balance with evidence-based training. A year later, she transferred to Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, and pursued PhD in Kinesiology with emphasis on human motor behavior. Transferring to Louisiana State University, Department of Kinesiology, allowed me to work with Parkinson’s patients who suffer from movement complications due to degeneration of specific areas in the brain. By working with experts in the field of movement disorders (Dr. Daniel Corcos), motor learning (Dr. Richard Magill) and motor control (Dr. Jan Hondzinski) she was able to develop a rehabilitation program for Parkinson’s patients with different levels of disability which became the primary focus of my dissertation. She has completed her PhD in December 2009 and currently she is a post-doctoral fellow at Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM). As a post-doctoral fellow at BCM, she had the opportunity to pursue my interest in evidence-based practice by working with Dr. Marcia O’Malley (Department of Mechanical Engineering, Rice University) and Dr. Mary Newsome (Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, BCM) where research effectiveness of robotic rehabilitation for persons with spinal cord injury and stroke.

Research Interest

Rehabilitation of adults with movement disorders,Development of evidence-based rehabilitation techniques.
Robotic Rehabilitation.
Effect of motor learning strategies in enhancing motor progress during rehabilitation.
Understanding Brain mechanisms involved in motor progress of persons with impairment.