Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation Research Scientist Profiles

Dr. Mark Bayley is Program Medical Director & Physiatrist-in-Chief at Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, and Medical Director for the WSIB Neurology Specialty Program of Altum Health at the University Health Network. He is Professor and Saunderson Family Chair in Brain injury Research at the University of Toronto in the Division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Faculty of Medicine. Mark’s research focuses on understanding how to speed brain recovery through exercise, virtual reality, telerehabilitation and functional electrical stimulation. Importantly, he has explored novel implementation strategies to bridge the knowledge-practice gap by making best evidence available to clinicians through smartphone apps (www.viatherapy.org) and Best Practices Guidelines in stroke, concussion and brain injury (https://braininjuryguidelines.org). His work has redesigned the stroke and brain injury rehabilitation systems in Canada.

Pending

Dr. Andrea Furlan is a scientist at the Institute for Work & Health (IWH). She is also a physician and senior scientist at the KITE Research Institute, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute at University Health Network (UHN). She is Professor in the Department of Medicine’s Division of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at the University of Toronto. She is Chair of ECHO Ontario Chronic Pain and Opioid Stewardship at UHN, and Co-Chair of ECHO Occupational and Environmental Medicine and ECHO for Return to Work of Public Safety Personnel at IWH. She is a physician in the pain clinic at Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, which is part of the Toronto Academic Pain Medicine Institute (TAPMI).

Her main research interests include rehabilitation medicine, chronic pain, low-back pain and neuropathic pain, with a focus on knowledge mobilization to healthcare professionals. She has over 130 publications in peer-reviewed journals, has written seven book chapters, published two books, one in 2023 and the latest in 2025. She has been an invited speaker at many local, national and international conferences, and is frequently sought by the media for interviews. During the Covid-19 pandemic, she started a YouTube channel to share her knowledge about chronic pain worldwide, and it has reached almost 700,000 subscribers. She is author of the book 8 STEPS to Conquer Chronic Pain. A Doctor's Guide to Lifelong Relief.

Julio C. Furlan, MD, LLB, MBA, PhD, MSc, FRCPC, FAAN, FASIA, is a staff neurologist and a Clinician Investigator in the Division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and the SCI Rehabilitation Program at the Lyndhurst Centre, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, University Health Network, Scientist at KITE Research Institute, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Toronto. He is a trained head and neck surgeon from Brazil, who holds a MBA degree in Health Administration, an MSc degree in Clinical Epidemiology, and a PhD degree in Neuroanatomy. He completed residency training in Adult Neurology at University of Toronto in June 2014, and he completed a two-year clinical fellowship in Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair at Toronto Rehabilitation Institute and the University of Toronto in June 2016. Dr Furlan's research has been focused on:

1. Determinants of neurological recovery after spinal cord injury and disease (SCI/D) including modifiable (hyperglycemia, blood alcohol level, secondary medical conditions such as sleep disorders and cardiovascular dysfunction) or non-modifiable factors (age at the SCI/D onset, biological sex, and race/ethnicity);
2. Identifying or refining methods to assess neurological impairment after SCI/D (clinical neurophysiology, and neuroimaging including conventional and functional MRI); and
3. Indicators of the impact of SCI/D on healthcare services using economic and epidemiological perspectives.

Dr. Dinesh Kumbhare is a Professor and Clinician Scientist in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto within the Division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. He is a Scientist at KITE and the Schroeder Chair in Pain Assessment and Rehabilitation at Toronto Rehabilitation Institute. He is cross-appointed to the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education and Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. He is also adjunct faculty in Kinesiology and Biomedical Engineering at McMaster University.

Dr. Kumbhare obtained his MSc in Health Research Management from McMaster University and his PhD in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto. He is section editor for the Physiatry Reviews for Evidence in Practice and Resident, Fellow Section with the American Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. He was the principal author of the book, Buschbacher’s Manual of Nerve Conduction Studies. According to the Neurodiagnostic Journal, this is “the gold standard in many EMG labs, this manual is a practical working reference for performing a wide variety of common nerve conduction studies. It provides both practicing clinicians and trainees with an impressive database of reference values they can use to interpret nerve conduction results with confidence.”

He is the Director of the SPARC Clinic (Schroeder Pain Assessment and Rehabilitation Research Center) at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute. SPARC is an interdisciplinary treatment and research centre powered by the University Health Network’s KITE Research Institute. SPARC clinic provides comprehensive care for people suffering from chronic pain using evidence-based best practices delivered by an interdisciplinary team of physicians and clinicians at Toronto Rehabilitation Institute. SPARC is uniquely positioned to provide a platform for the investigation of pain disorders involving research in biomedical engineering, physical medicine and rehabilitation, clinical epidemiology, and kinesiology. The clinic is believed to be the first such facility in Canada to provide these opportunities for patients, clinicians and researchers. More information about the SPARC clinic can be found at www.sparc-clinic.com

For a list of Dr. Kumbhare's publications, please visit PubMed, Scopus or ORCID.

Dr. Carl Leochico is a physiatrist from the Philippines, where he finished his residency training in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation. He completed a 2-year clinical fellowship in Brain Medicine at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, followed by a 1-year clinical fellowship in Brain Injury Rehabilitation at Toronto Rehab. He obtained his Master’s degree in Translational Research at the University of Toronto, with support from the Dr. Gaetan Tardif Fellowship Award, Azrieli Brain Medicine Foundation, and Temerty Faculty of Medicine GSEF Merit Scholarship for International Students.

He has a subspecialty interest in the interdisciplinary treatment of complex brain disorders, including Functional Neurological Disorders (FND).
In October 2025, he started his role as a full-time Assistant Professor (Clinician-Investigator) in the Department of Medicine (Division of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation) at the University of Toronto. He is a staff physiatrist in the Brain Program at Toronto Rehab – University Health Network and the Brain Medicine Clinic at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. He sees patients at the Neurophysiatry Clinic, Hull-Ellis Concussion Clinic, and the Hypertonicity Clinic at Toronto Rehab. Together with the UHN Integrated Movement Disorders Program, he is establishing a slow-stream rehabilitation program for persons living with FND.

With his academic interest in telerehabilitation, he aims to harness technology such as remote monitoring to improve the delivery of virtual care. He also aims to address the gaps in FND care, such as by improving the capacity of health professionals in providing FND rehab and enhancing the functional outcomes of this underserved and highly stigmatized population.

A new study from Toronto Rehab found that combining aerobic and resistance training provides powerful benefits to patients who are recovering from a stroke.

Recommendations for combined aerobic and resistance training for stroke survivors have been in place for years, but few research studies exist demonstrating that it actually improves recovery. Moreover, there is no compelling evidence that combined training is more effective than aerobic training alone for post-stroke recovery.

“One focus area for the research team in cardiac rehab is around exercise training models in cardiovascular populations,” says the Department of Medicine’s Dr. Paul Oh. “What type and intensity, dose and frequency are associated with optimal gains in fitness and function?”

To address this important question, Dr. Susan Marzolini, a PhD scientist at Toronto Rehab, led a team that compared combined aerobic and resistance training with aerobic training alone in a group of stroke survivors with mobility deficits.

They discovered despite being prescribed 40 per cent less aerobic training, patients who received combined training had enhanced stroke recovery and showed greater improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness, strength and lean muscle mass. In fact, the combined training group gained almost five times more muscle mass than the aerobic only group.

The findings provide scientific evidence of the benefits of supplementing aerobic sessions with resistance training and support the integration of both types of training in stroke rehabilitation programs.

This work was supported by the Heart and Stroke Foundation Canadian Partnership for Stroke Recovery, and the Ontario Stroke Network.

Citation: Neurorehabil Neural Repair. 2018 Mar;32(3):209-222. doi: 10.1177/1545968318765692. Epub 2018 Mar 30.

Link to abstract: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29600726

Dr. Simmonds is currently an assistant professor in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Toronto. He completed his residency in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center where he served as chief resident. He completed a combined DO-PhD (epidemiology) at Michigan State University as part of the combined physician scientist track. He also holds a MPH degree from the University of Texas Health School of Public Health. His research focuses on leveraging big data to identify more efficient and equitable methods for improving rehabilitation care delivery and enhancing stroke recovery. This includes using Medicare claims data to design and emulate a clinical trial comparing stroke rehabilitation at inpatient rehabilitation facilities with that at skilled nursing facilities, assessing racial and ethnic disparities in post-stroke care, and conducting comparative effectiveness research in medical management during the subacute and chronic stroke recovery phases.

Dr. Simmonds' work has earned several national and international awards, including the American Heart Association’s Stroke Rehabilitation Award, an oral abstract award from the International Society of PM&R, two Ursula Krusen Awards from the Texas PM&R Society, as well as two Paul Dudley White International Scholar Awards for the highest-ranked abstract from the United States submitted to the International Stroke Conference.

Dr. Robert Simpson, MD PhD, is a specialist physician in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (PM&R), fellowship trained in Integrative Medicine. Dr. Simpson provides PM&R inreach to the Barlo multiple sclerosis (MS) clinic at St Michael's Hospital, Toronto. His research focus is developing and evaluating complex interventions using mixed-methods to improve the wellbeing of people with MS and the healthcare providers who care for them.