UB's Carl Granger Named Most-Cited Author in Rehabilitation Journals

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Carl V. Granger, MD, executive director of Uniform Data System for Medical Rehabilitation (UDSMR), a non-profit affiliate of the University at Buffalo, is the top-cited author of papers in the rehabilitation field, according to a review published in Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.

The study, performed by two independent reviewers, covered 45,700 articles published in 30 rehabilitation-dedicated journals, with the most-cited articles appearing between 1959 and 2002. Results showed that Granger coauthored 10 of the 100 top-cited articles and was first author of five articles, nearly twice as many as any other author.

Many of the articles cited involved the FIM® instrument and its reliability and validity. The instrument is a functional assessment tool developed by Granger and colleagues, designed to provide a common language for use in describing the severity of a patient's disability and the patient's ability to perform activities of daily living. As the patient's disability changes during rehabilitation, the instrument provides a way to track and analyze outcomes.

Since its inception in 1987, UDSMR has provided the most comprehensive rehabilitation data to the industry. It maintains the world's largest database for medical rehabilitation outcomes, which is used by facilities worldwide to document patient functionality throughout the continuum of care.

Granger is a professor and former chair of UB's Department of Rehabilitation Medicine in the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. He has spent his career developing methods to measure the functional deficits of rehabilitation patients and their need for assistance.