Edward A. Hurvitz is the James W. Rae Collegiate Professor and Chair of the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (PM&R) at the University of Michigan. He has been involved in the diagnosis and management of pediatric onset disabilities, especially cerebral palsy (CP) for over 25 years. His research focuses on adolescents and adults, including areas such as health and fitness, health-related outcomes, and transition to adulthood. Dr. Hurvitz has been chair of the department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation since 2006. Prior to that, he was the Chief of the Rehabilitation Service at the Ann Arbor VA Medical Center between 1991 and 1996. He also served as co-PI for the department’s former T32 rehabilitation research training program. Dr. Hurvitz has been involved in several institutional projects, including the development of the University of Michigan Comprehensive Musculoskeletal Center, the Neuroscience Program, and the Fast Forward Clinical Trials Program.
He has held several national leadership positions, such as chair of the pediatric special interest group of the AAPMR; membership and chair of various committees for the American Academy of Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine; and Chair-elect of the Chair’s council of the AAP. His work with cerebral palsy has led to membership on the Children’s Motor Study Group, an NINDS/NIH sponsored group of experts in the field. He is also currently co-leading an international group that is interested in research related to obesity, activity, and risk of chronic disease in adults with cerebral palsy.
In 2013, the American Academy of Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine recognized his work with the Chambers Lifespan award and lecture. Dr. Hurvitz co-founded and co-directs the Cerebral Palsy Research Consortium of Michigan with Drs. Seth Warschausky (Michigan) and Nigel Paneth (Michigan State University). He has been funded for research as a PI or Co-PI from the NIH, NID(IL)RR, United Cerebral Palsy, and from industry. He is currently a co-investigator on a field-initiated research project from NIDILRR examining sedentary activity in adults with cerebral palsy (Peterson PI); a project co-investigator on an RERC (Meade PI) examining cognitive factors affecting heath self-management (Warschausky project PI); Mentor for a K award on metabolic dysregulation in adults and adolescents with CP (Peterson PI); and potential site PI for a multi-site PCORI application to study outcomes of surgery in CP using a Practice-Based Evidence approach. As part of this work, he is participating in a national effort to establish a registry of individuals with CP.
