Physician Features
Meet our ABMS Visiting Scholar: Dr. Allison Wallingford!
The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) has selected Allison Wallingford, MD as the first-ever representative of the ABPMR in its 2024–2025 Visiting Scholars Program™. Established in 2014, the one-year, part-time program supports early-career physicians and researchers in scholarship and leadership development focusing on initial and continuing board certification. Each Visiting Scholar receives a $15,000 financial award.
Dr. Wallingford is originally from Orange County, California, where she grew up competing on her high school surf team. She earned her undergraduate degree in chemistry from Pomona College, attended medical school at Johns Hopkins University and is currently doing a PM&R fellowship at the University of Washington where she also completed residency. She chose the field of PM&R after her brother was diagnosed with Guillain–Barré Syndrome and he was cared for by rehab physicians. Dr. Wallingford recently passed Part I of the PM&R board certification exam and will take Part II in the spring of 2025. She also plans to take the Brain Injury Medicine (BIM) Examination when she is eligible.
Dr. Wallingford’s research topic, “Use of Biased Language in the Medical Record to Describe Patients with Traumatic Brain Injury” will focus on words that cause physicians to have negative feelings towards patients they have not met yet. “I think it will be enlightening to be in this program sharing with other providers in different specialties and getting their feedback,” said Wallingford. “This growing area of research is concerned with stigmatizing language that perpetuates biases and contributes to healthcare disparities. The goal is to create training and more awareness of these stigmatizing words. Every physician I talk to, whether it’s rehab or another specialty, recognizes this once you bring it to their attention.”
This is the first time the ABPMR is sponsoring an ABMS Visiting Scholar. “We congratulate Dr. Wallingford on becoming the first ABMS Scholar representing the specialty of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation,” said ABPMR Executive Director Carolyn Kinney, MD. “As a new sponsor of the scholarship program, we at ABPMR look forward to collaborating with scholarship recipients to advance the board’s mission of improving the quality of patient care in our field.”
When Dr. Wallingford in not at the office, you can find her rock-climbing, surfing, or snowboarding. She enjoys traveling and just returned from a trip to Oaxaca, Mexico. We look forward to following her throughout this journey so make sure to follow us on social media to keep up!
Founded in 1947, the mission of the ABPMR is to serve the public by advancing the quality of patient care in physical medicine and rehabilitation. This is accomplished through a process of initial and continuing certification that fosters professional excellence and a culture of life-long learning.
