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Final Program


Final Program

Marlis Gonzalez Fernandez, MD, PhD (she/her/hers)

Professor
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Dr. González-Fernández has provided clinical services and conducted research at Johns Hopkins for 22 years. She earned her medical degree from the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine and completed her residency and chief residency in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Sinai Hospital of Baltimore.

She joined the JH PM&R department’s faculty after completing her residency as an Instructor and a T-32 research fellow, earning her PhD at the Bloomberg School of Public Health and the School of Medicine with a focus on clinical investigation.

Conducting high-quality clinical research and providing clinical care that embodies a core principle of the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation specialty—minimizing the impact of injury or disease on quality of life—has been central to her career.

Her main research interests include swallowing physiology, swallowing disorders after stroke, and dysphagia rehabilitation. She has been a long-standing collaborator with researchers in Japan pioneering the use of 4D swallowing CT scanning to study swallowing physiology and pathophysiology.

In clinical settings, Dr. González-Fernández has served as the primary physician at the Johns Hopkins outpatient limb-loss rehabilitation clinics for over 18 years. The limb loss rehabilitation program offers medical and physical/occupational therapy services through the Johns Hopkins Rehabilitation network, with rehabilitation physician clinics held several times each week and therapy services at six locations. Additionally, a monthly clinic for osseointegration evaluation and surgery functions as a collaborative effort among physiatrists, orthopedic and plastic surgeons, prosthetists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, and anaplastologists. Due to her research expertise, she also provides neurorehabilitation evaluations for patients with dysphagia and spasticity.

Dr. González-Fernández is currently Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Orthopedic Surgery, and Art as Applied to Medicine.

Presentation(s):