Richard David Zorowitz, MD| Physical Medicine And Rehabilitation | MedStar Health
About me
Richard D. Zorowitz, MD, is a graduate of the Tulane University School of Medicine. He completed an internship in internal medicine at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center, New Hyde Park, NY, and a residency in physical medicine and rehabilitation at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Northwestern University, IL. He is board certified in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Spinal Cord Injury Medicine, and Brain Injury Medicine.
Dr. Zorowitz focuses his clinical activities on the rehabilitation of stroke, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, and other neurological conditions. He specializes in the management of spasticity, including oral medications, botulinum toxin injections, and intrathecal baclofen. His research activities focus on stroke rehabilitation, including motor recovery, hemiplegic shoulder pain, dysphagia, spasticity, pseudobulbar affect, and functional outcomes.
Clinical areas of focus
- Botox For Spasticity
- Brain Injury
- Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Rehabilitation
- Peripheral Neuropathy
- Spasticity
- Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation
- Stroke Rehabilitation
- Traumatic Brain Injury
Conditions and procedures
Procedures I perform
- Adaptive And Mobility Equipment Evaluation
- Balance Rehabilitation
- Botox For Spasticity
- Brain Injury Rehabilitation
- Cerebral Palsy Rehabilitation
- Developmental Delays Therapies
- Gait Analysis
- Gait Therapies
- Joint Injection
- Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Rehabilitation
- Muscular Dystrophy Therapies
- Neuromuscular Therapies
- Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation
- Stroke Rehabilitation
- Telerehabilitation
Practice locations
Distance from Change LocationEnter your Location
3800 Reservoir Road Northwest Pasquerilla Healthcare Center 4th Fl Washington, DC, 20007
202-877-1621Fax 202-877-1998
Insurance
MedStar Health accepts most major health insurance plans. If you are uncertain as to whether your individual health insurance plan is accepted at MedStar Health, please call your insurance company.
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List of insurance plans we accept
- Aetna Medicare Advantage HMO & PPO Plans
- Innovation Health: Open POS Plus
- Innovation Health: Open POS II
- Aetna Managed Choice Open Access (POS)
- Aetna Choice POS & Choice POS II
- Innovation Health: POS Plus
- Aetna Managed Choice (POS)
- Innovation Health: POS
- Aetna Open HMO/Open HMO Option/Open EPO Plus
- Aetna HMO-Open Access/Select OA
- Aetna HealthFund/Health Network Option OA
- Innovation Health: HMO & EPO Plus
- Aetna Select HMO/HealthFund/Health Network
- Aetna HMO
- Innovation Health: Open Network Only Plus
- Aetna Elect Choice/ Open Access (POS)
- Innovation Health: Network Only Plus
- Aetna Elect Choice/ EPO (Aetna Health Fund)
- Employee Health Plan (EHP)
- Cigna TotalCare (HMO D-SNP)
- Cigna Preferred Medicare
- Cigna Alliance Medicare (HMO) |
- Cigna Achieve Medicare (HMO C-SNP)
- Veterans Affairs Community Care Network (VA CCN)
- United Medicare Advantage DSNP District of Columbia
- United Student Resources
- United Select Plus (POS)
- United Select HMO - EPO/NPP
- United Options (PPO) (includes Empire PPO)
- United Golden Rule
- United GEHA (for all other states) Compass Rose
- D-SNP)
- I-SNP
- United Nursing Home Plan (C-SNP
- United Erickson Advantage Plans
- United Choice Plus
- United Choice
- United Mamsi Life & Health
- United Core Essential (HMO)
- United Navigate
- MedStar Family Choice DC Healthy Families
- MedStar Family Choice DC Healthcare Alliance
- United MD IPA Preferred (POS)
- United MD IPA (HMO)
- Kaiser Permanente Signature-Added Choice
- Kaiser Signature
- Kaiser HMO Plus and DHMO Plus Member
- Kaiser Select-Added Choice
- Kaiser Select
- Kaiser Medicare Plus
- Kaiser Medicare Advantage Signature and Select
- Kaiser Flexible Choice
- HumanaChoice PPO
- HumanaChoice Honor’s plan PPO
- Health Services for Children with Special Needs (HSCSN)
- Cigna True Choice Plus Medicare (PPO)
- Cigna True Choice Medicare (PPO)
- Cigna POS/Network POS
- Cigna Indemnity
- Cigna POS Open Access & Open Access Plus
- Cigna Network Open Access
- Cigna HMO Open Access
- Cigna PPO and PPO Plus
- CIGNA EPO
- Cigna Choice Fund PPO
- Beech Street PPO
- Innovation Health: Indemnity
- Aetna Traditional Choice (PPO)
- Aetna Student Health Insurance
- Aetna Signature Administrator PPO/TPA
- Aetna Quality Point of Service (POS)
- Innovation Health: PPO
- Aetna Open Choice (PPO)
- Cigna HMO & Network (HMO)
- WellPoint Maryland - Maryland Health Choice
- WellPoint Maryland
- Virginia Premier
- Veterans Affairs Community Care Network
- UnitedHealthcare Individual Exchange Plans
- United Community Plan - Maryland Health Choice Program
- Uniformed Services Family Health Plan (USFHP)
- Private Health Care Systems (PHCS) (PPO)
- Priority Partners - Maryland Health Choice
- Police and Fire Clinic
- United Optimum Choice Preferred (POS) & OCI Direct (HMO)
- United Optimum Choice
- United Group Medicare Advantage Plans
- United AARP Medicare Complete
- Traditional Medicare Fee for Service
- Medicaid - Virginia
- Medicaid - Maryland
- Medicaid - District of Columbia
- Tricare for Life East
- Tricare Reserve Select
- Tricare East Select
- Tricare East Prime
- Maryland Point of Service Plan (MPOS)
- HealthyBlue PPO
- Federal Employee Program (Std/Basic PPO/Blue Focus)
- CareFirst NASCO
- CareFirst MedStar Select PPO
- CareFirst MedStar PPO
- CareFirst Maryland Indemnity or PPO
- CareFirst Group Medicare Advantage prescription drug benefit (PPO)
- CareFirst Group Medicare Advantage
- CareFirst BC/BS Advantage Core/Enhanced
- CareFirst Blue Card Program (Out-of-area BCBS plans)
- CareFirst Administrators
- CareFirst (NCA) Indemnity
- Carefirst BlueChoice Opt Out Plus Open Access (POS)
- Carefirst Healthy Blue (HMO/POS)
- Carefirst BlueChoice Opt Out Open Access
- Carefirst BlueChoice Open Access
- Carefirst BlueChoice HMO
- Carefirst EPO
- Carefirst Blue Preferred PPO
- Coventry Health Care National Network PPO
- MedStar Family Choice - Maryland Health Choice
- First Health PPO
- Coventry of Delaware HMO/PPO
- Coventry Health Care of Virginia
- Great-West Healthcare POS/CIGNA
Education
Board Certification: American Board of Podiatric Medicine, Primary Podiatric Medicine
Residency: Northwestern Memorial Hospital (1989)
Graduate: Tulane University (1985)
Awards
- Visionary in Practice Society, National Stroke Association (2001)Central Nervous System Council Outstanding Service Award, American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (2011)
- Golden Goniometer Award, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (2012)
- America’s Top Physicians, Consumer’s Research Council of America (2015) Outstanding Contributions in the Training and Education of the Resident Staff, MedStar National Rehabilitation Network/Georgetown (2016)
- John W. Goldschmidt Award, MedStar National Rehabilitation Hospital (2022)
Hospital affiliations
News and publications
- Holloway RG, Arnold RM, Creutzfeldt CJ, Lewis EF, Lutz BJ, McCann RM, Rabinstein AA, Saposnik G, Sheth KN, Zahuranec DB, Zipfel GJ, Zorowitz RD; on behalf of the American Heart Association Stroke Council, Council on Cardiovascular and Stroke Nursing, and Council on Clinical Cardiology. Palliative and end-of-life care in stroke: a statement for healthcare professionals from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association. Stroke 2014; 45: 1887-1916. DOI: 10.1161/STR.0000000000000015
- Veerakumara A, Cheng JJ, Sunshineb A, Yeb X, Zorowitz RD, Anderson WS. Baclofen dosage after traumatic spinal cord injury: A multi-decade retrospective analysis. Clin Neurol Neurosurg 2015: 129; 50–56.
- Ganapathy V, Graham GD, DiBonaventura MD, Gillard PJ, Goren, A, Zorowitz R. Caregiver burden, productivity loss, and indirect costs associated with caring for patients with post-stroke spasticity. Clin Interven Aging 2015; 10: 1793–1802. DOI: 10.2147/CIA.S91123. PMCID: PMC4644168.
- Coslick A, Zorowitz RD, Wright SM. Clinical Excellence in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation: Examples from the Published Literature. J Rehabil Med 2016; 48(3): 253-258. DOI:10.2340/16501977-2058.
- Winstein CJ, Stein J, Arena R, Bates B, Cherney LR, Cramer SC, Deruyter F, Eng JJ, Fisher B, Harvey RL, Lang CE, MacKay-Lyons M, Ottenbacher KJ, Pugh S, Reeves MJ, Richards LG, Stiers W, Zorowitz RD; on behalf of the American Heart Association Stroke Council, Council on Cardiovascular and Stroke Nursing, Council on Clinical Cardiology, and Council on Quality of Care and Outcomes Research. Guidelines for adult stroke rehabilitation and recovery: a guideline for healthcare professionals from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association [published online ahead of print May 4, 2016]. Stroke 2016; 47(6): e98-169.
- Hammond FM, Alexander DN, Cutler AJ, D'Amico S, Doody RS, Sauve W, Zorowitz RD, Davis CS, Shin P, Ledon F, Yonan C, Formella AE, Siffert J. PRISM II: An open-label study to assess effectiveness of dextromethorphan/ quinidine for pseudobulbar affect in patients with dementia, stroke or traumatic brain injury. BMC Neurology 2016; 16: 89.
- Zorowitz RD. Topics in practice management. ICU-acquired weakness: A rehabilitation perspective of diagnosis, treatment, and functional management. Chest 2016; 150(4): 966–971.
- Zorowitz RD, Wein TH, Dunning K, Deltombe T, Olver JH, Dave SJ, Dimyan MA, Kelemen J, Pagan FL, Evans CJ, Gillard P, Kissela BM. A screening tool to identify spasticity in need of treatment. Am J Phys Med Rehabil 2017; 96(5): 315-320.
- Zorowitz RD, Alexander DN, Formella AE, Ledon F, Davis C, Siffert J. Dextromethorphan/quinidine for pseudobulbar affect following stroke: Safety and effectiveness in the PRISM II trial. PM&R 2019; 11(1): 17-24. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmrj.2018.06.003
- Berrigan WA, Whitehair C, Zorowitz R. Acute Spinal Epidural Hematoma as a Complication of Dry Needling: A Case Report. PM&R 2019; 11(3): 313-316. Published online July 20, 2018. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmrj.2018.07.009.
- Adeoye O, Nyström KV, Yavagal DR, Luciano J, Nogueira RG, Zorowitz RD, Khalessi AA, Bushnell C, Barsan WG, Panagos P, Alberts MJ, Tiner AC, Schwamm LH, Jauch EC. Recommendations for the Establishment of Stroke Systems of Care: A 2019 Update A Policy Statement From the American Stroke Association. Stroke 2019; 50: 00-00. DOI: 10.1161/STR.0000000000000173.
- Duncan PW, Bushnell C, Sissine M, Coleman S, Lutz BJ, Johnson AM, Radman M, Pvru Bettger J, Zorowitz RD, Stein J. Comprehensive Stroke Care and Outcomes: Time for a Paradigm Shift. Stroke 2021; 52(1): 385-393. doi:10.1161/STROKEAHA.120.029678. Epub 2020 Dec 22. PMID: 33349012.