MedStar NRH is taking center stage at the new, state-of-the-art MedStar Health at Lafayette Centre, which opened in September 2016. Primary care services; a wide range of specialty medical care, including rehabilitation; diagnostic imaging; and surgical facilities are housed in 112,000 sq. ft., in two buildings in the heart of the nation’s capital convenient to Metro and with ample parking.
Comprehensive Sports Performance Lab
MedStar Health Orthopaedics and Sports Center occupies two floors of Building One and features the East Coast’s most sophisticated Sports Performance Lab. The lab is geared to the training and rehabilitation of athletes from across the country, as well as residents of the D.C. region.
“The center has been developed as MedStar Sports Medicine’s Greater Washington region flagship site exclusively dedicated to orthopaedics, sports medicine, physical therapy, performance enhancement and sports medicine-orthopaedic evaluations,” says John Brickley, vice president for ambulatory services and network development. “We’ve created a stateof-the-art center for the prevention and treatment of sports injury—and for the improvement of athletic performance for elite athletes and amateurs.”
MedStar NRH physiatrists and sports medicine physical therapists serve as the rehabilitation arm of MedStar Health Sports Medicine and work hand-inhand with the wide spectrum of sports medicine physician specialists across MedStar. MedStar Sports Medicine is the exclusive health care provider for several professional sports teams, as well as club teams and collegiate sports programs.
“The lab is equipped with the most advanced technology available to analyze and enhance sports performance,” says Lance Kelly, director of professional, collegiate and elite sports therapy.
Cutting-edge tools include 3D kinematic and ultra-high speed motion analysis and sports simulation testing and training on the facility’s basketball court, baseball pitching mound, and artificial turf and track.
The lab also features ViPerform™, a wireless sensor technology that tracks and measures how athletes move in real-time. “We can analyze a variety of movements including jumping, running and throwing as the athletes engage in the activity wearing motion and muscle activity sensors that record data at 200 frames per second,” explains Kelly.
The ViPerform™ software translates the data into meaningful results to help develop training plans that enhance performance—and prevent injury.
A unique Runner’s Clinic at the Lafayette Centre offers dual camera video gait analysis that allows therapists to review the runner’s head-to-toe biomechanics—critical information about posture, strength and flexibility that can leave runners open to re-injury. The clinic incorporates cross training and the use of the AlterG® Anti-Gravity Treadmill to decrease the force of impact, which is then increased over time as an injury heals.
Full Complement of Rehab Services
MedStar NRH at Lafayette Centre also provides the complete complement of rehab services for musculoskeletal conditions, spine conditions, concussions, pain syndromes, cancer and lymphedema. In addition to physiatrists Jason De Luigi, DO, and B. Elizabeth Delasobera, MD, the center features a cadre of physical and occupational therapists, including certified hand therapists.
“The beauty of the Lafayette Centre is that we can do all we need to help patients in one location,” Kelly notes. “I can walk down the hall to consult with a physician and make an immediate therapy decision. We have diagnostic imaging and patients can have procedures here too. This makes care easier for patients to access and that means better outcomes.”
Learn more about MedStar Health Physical Therapy at Lafayette Centre.
Written by Emily Turk.