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Daniel Whitney

Daniel Whitney, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
U-M Primary Appointment
Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation

My Ph.D. at the University of Delaware was focused on identifying effective treatment strategies to maximize musculoskeletal development and function, and mitigate chronic disease development among children with cerebral palsy. I continued this line of research during my postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of Michigan by investigating biological mechanisms of suppressed musculoskeletal acquisition. During the later stage of my postdoctoral research Learner, I realized that very little is known about the healthful aging process for populations with pediatric-onset disabilities. Little clinical knowledge of the life-course health development may explain the poor clinical care for these adult populations, which may independently exacerbate the already concerning burden of health disparities. I, therefore, set my goals on learning how to conduct population-based studies using epidemiologic methods, health services research concepts, and more advanced biostatistics methods. This new line of research has proven to be very productive and unique, as there are not many other researchers examining health disparities and healthcare quality for populations with pediatric-onset disabilities across the lifespan from a population-based perspective.