Laurie King, PT, PhD, MCR, is now a professor of Neurology at Oregon Health Science University but relied heavily on support from a variety of organizations, including the Foundation for Physical Therapy Research, as she journeyed back into the world of research. After finishing her doctoral degree, King took five years off to care for her young children. When she decided to return to research, she discovered an NIH reentry grant that funded her postdoctoral fellowship, which she did under the mentorship of Dr. Fay Horak.

The Foundation also played a crucial role in her comeback by awarding her the 2011 Clagett Family Research Grant. “The Foundation grant helped me a lot because it was the first big grant I got as the PI,” King explained. The Foundation grant “was nice, how it bridged between postdoc and then being an independent researcher,” she said. With this support, King successfully transitioned to the role of principal investigator, later securing larger NIH and Department of Defense grants. This grant enabled her to start her line of research, making her more competitive for larger grants. To date, she has secured over 12 million dollars in federal funding.

Over the past decade, through funding from the Department of Defense, King’s work has primarily focused on concussions and mild traumatic brain injuries. She is also the PI (together with Dr. Mancini, PhD) on an NIH R01 grant focusing on Parkinson disease and telerehabilitation.

King co-directs the Balance Disorders Lab at Oregon Health & Science University with Martina Mancini, PhD. “Most of our research has to do with improving assessment of neurologic populations and rehabilitation interventions for those groups,” she said.

Looking to the future of physical therapy research, King is particularly interested in the use of wearable sensors. “We use wearable sensors all the time in our lab, and they’re getting more and more accessible,” she noted. Traditionally, studies relied on force plates and motion capture systems, which confined assessments to the lab. Wearable sensors, however, offer a way to evaluate patients in their everyday environments.

“From a clinical standpoint, if you see someone at home with home health care, it’s a whole different world than when they come into the clinic,” King explained. The same applies to using sensors to assess people in other real-world settings compared with a lab environment.

King and her team are currently working with a company that is developing wearable socks and belts that provide not just step counts but also detailed metrics on movement quality. These sensors can detect issues like turning speed, which is crucial for conditions such as Parkinson disease or vestibular problems.

In addition to her work with sensors, King is exploring new approaches to concussion treatment. “We’re finding more and more that it’s less of a sensory problem,” she said, referring to how patients react to stimuli. Using quantitative measures, King and her team can assess the latency of postural responses, revealing deficits that current therapies do not address. “I’m excited to explore rehabilitation programs for that deficit with different approaches like perturbation training and audio biofeedback,” she added.

Laurie King’s research journey underscores the vital role of support from organizations like the NIH reentry grants and the Foundation in facilitating her transition to becoming an independent researcher. Through her studies and dedication to improving patient outcomes, King’s contributions will provide physical therapists with evidence-based new tools and techniques that her research has demonstrated are effective in maximizing patients’ health.