Physician Features
Welcome, Dr. Garstang
The ABPMR is pleased to announce the addition of Susan Garstang, MD, to the board of directors.
Dr. Garstang received her medical degree from Washington University School of Medicine, followed by an internal medicine internship at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri. She completed residency training in PM&R at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and a fellowship in spinal cord injury medicine (SCIM) at what is now Kessler Institute of Rehabilitation at Rutgers-New Jersey Medical School. She is certified in PM&R and also holds subspecialty certification in spinal cord injury medicine and brain injury medicine.
Dr. Garstang is currently the deputy associate chief of staff for Academic Affiliations at the VA Salt Lake City (VASLC) Healthcare System in Salt Lake City, Utah, where she is also a staff physician in PM&R. In addition, Dr. Garstang serves as a clinical associate professor of PM&R and associate program director of the SCIM Fellowship at the University of Utah School of Medicine, a new fellowship that Dr. Garstang founded.
Prior to her roles at VASLC and University of Utah, Dr. Garstang served as a PM&R residency program director for 14 years, first at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and then at Rutgers-New Jersey Medical School. She was also the director of the Spinal Cord Injury Program at University Hospital in Newark, as well as associate chief of staff for education at the VA New Jersey Healthcare System.
Dr. Garstang has served the field of PM&R in many volunteer and leadership positions with various organizations, including as a SCIM Examination item writer and Part II (oral) Examination examiner for the ABPMR and as a member of the ACGME Review Committee for PM&R. She was a member of the ACGME PM&R Milestones Working Group, and chair of the SCIM Milestones Working Group for the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). She has also had extensive service on committees and initiatives for the Association of Academic Physiatrists (AAP) including several terms on the board of trustees.
As associate chief of staff for academic affiliations at VASLC, Dr. Garstang has oversight for all graduate medical education programs at her institution. In her clinical practice, Dr. Garstang’s focus is musculoskeletal (MSK) medicine, (including a women veterans MSK clinic), as well as spinal cord injury, stroke, and ALS, including ultrasound-guided MSK and spasticity procedures.
Physician board directors of the ABPMR serve up to two 5-year terms, and Dr. Garstang begins her first term on August 1, 2020.
