Dr. Tom Groomes reviews information on the AutoAmbulator, an innovative therapeutic device designed to help improve gait and walking function.

As medical director of the Spinal Cord Injury Program and the Traumatic Brain Injury Program at the Stallworth Rehabilitation Hospital at Vanderbilt, he helps patients who have suffered traumatic injuries get their lives back in working order.

When he was a high school student at Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville, his favorite courses were always the ones in science and math. He continued this academic path at Vanderbilt University, graduating with a double major in biomedical engineering and math. Groomes knew that after college he wanted to continue along the academically challenging path he had been following and planned to interview for a job as a biomedical engineer.

Fate intervened in the form of a friend who encouraged him to apply to medical school instead. Timing is everything, and the suggestion came at just the right moment. Recognizing that “If I ever was going to do it, this was the time,” Groomes applied and was accepted to the University of Tennessee College of Medicine in Memphis.

“I didn’t have any ‘medical role model’—my family owned a printing and packaging business, and I was the first to go into healthcare,” he remembered.

After completing medical school and residency programs in physical medicine and rehabilitation, Groomes came to Stallworth — just four months after it opened — and he has been part of the program ever since.

“It was the right decision,” he said, “I’ve loved working here.”

Vanderbilt Stallworth Rehabilitation Hospital, a joint venture between Vanderbilt and HealthSouth, a provider of comprehensive medical rehabilitation services, opened in 1993. It is an 80-bed hospital specially designed for rehabilitative medicine. A freestanding complex on the edge of the Vanderbilt campus, Stallworth boasts the latest technology, treatment gyms, patient recreation areas, a regulation size gymnasium, a therapeutic courtyard and individualized treatment plans tailored to help each patient optimize their quality of life within the limitations placed on them by trauma or disease.

“In this kind of rehab, we have the chance to work with patients very closely, be involved in their overall care, and connect with their family and social network –it is really hands-on physician/patient relationship,” said Groomes, who is also an assistant professor of orthopaedics and rehabilitation at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Because care is so individualized, the program can be adapted for any type of rehabilitation, and Stallworth sees all types of patients … from knee replacements to spinal cord injury to brain trauma. The majority of patients have suffered some sort of spinal cord injury — an injury that occurs to approximately 12,000 to 15,000 people per year in the United States. About 10,000 of these victims nationally are permanently paralyzed, and many of the rest die as a result of their injuries. Statistically, most spinal cord trauma occurs to young, healthy individuals, especially in males between 15 and 35 years of age.

Groomes pointed out, “We see about 50-75 spinal cord cases a year here. Having this facility here offers an advantage to patients to be able to stay in their home communities and close to their support as they work through their recovery.”

He added that one of the most dramatic differences that he has seen during his career working with multi-trauma brain injuries is that there is now a higher potential for change because of improved knowledge and the selection of medications from a wider spectrum.

“We are starting to realize that the research itself needs more research because before so much of what we knew was anecdotally reported,” he explained.

He and his colleagues are excited about the use of robotics. Increasingly being used in rehab treatments, robotics has proven to be especially effective in improving gait patterns as patients relearn to walk. The repetitive motion offered by the mechanical device can rebuild nerve pathways from the brain to the injured limb, a cortical reorganization that appears to continue even years after the initial injury.

Currently the type of therapy in repetitive walking patterns to help the brain and spinal cord work together to reroute signals interrupted by injury or illness requires the aid of two or more physical therapists to manually move the patient’s legs in a walking pattern. Robotic-assisted walking therapy has advantages over traditional physical therapy from a cost and manpower standpoint: the robot simply has to be programmed and plugged in for a therapy session that is more consistent, can be offered more frequently, and sustained over a longer period of time. A robot is versatile and compliant and can be adjusted to offer some resistance to strengthen a patient’s movements. However, it can also help a weaker patient build strength and consistency at a lower level.

Groomes is excited by new developments he sees on the horizon, especially neurological studies based on techniques that enable a signal that originates in the brain to bypass a damaged spinal cord and communicate directly with the muscle.

At home, active six-year-old twins, a boy and girl who are just starting kindergarten, keep the Groomes family busy and entertained. He is very interested in communication patterns that seem so natural to the siblings. “I have always heard about ‘twin language,’ but I am fascinated by how close they are socially. Each has his own group of friends, but they are so much more ‘hands on’ with each other.”

He is active at First Presbyterian Church in Nashville, where he has just been named a deacon and is very involved with youth work. He also loves jogging and traveling with his family.

The jogging probably helps offset the tempting creations at the family table. Although fit and lean, no one ever has to worry about Groomes going hungry — his wife, Melody, is rooted in strong Southern culinary traditions. If you’ve ever stopped in at her family’s restaurant, Peggy’s Catfish Hotel, in Shiloh, Tenn., you just know Groomes is well fed at home.

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