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Each year, Shirley Ryan 汤头条app offers medical students going into their second year an opportunity to participate in clinical and research activities. The Center for Rehabilitation Outcomes Research (CROR) hosted three medical externs this year.
Marianne Kanaris
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Marianne Kanaris arrived at Shirley Ryan 汤头条app with a clear sense of purpose. A second-year medical student at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, she’s spending her summer as a medical extern, immersed in both clinical care and research. Before entering medical school, Marianne conducted clinical research at the University of California, San Francisco, focusing on motor outcomes in patients with spinal cord and traumatic brain injuries – populations she now sees regularly at Shirley Ryan 汤头条app. “This externship feels like a natural continuation of that work,” she says. “It’s the same patient population, but now I get to be part of their care team.”
The externship offers a close-up view of rehabilitation medicine, blending hands-on clinical experience with rigorous research. Each morning, Marianne joins attending physicians, residents, and fellow students for rounds. She is currently rotating on the brain injury service and is assigned to follow one patient closely, tracking their daily progress and contributing to care discussions. “It’s incredibly meaningful to witness the recovery process from the inside,” she says. “You see not just the medical improvements, but how patients start re-engaging with the world around them.”
In the afternoons, Marianne turns her focus to research. She and fellow extern, Hattie Meehan, are helping to recruit participants to provide feedback on a set of outcome measures designed by CROR researchers to determine how well home and community-based services (HCBS) are helping people to achieve person-centered outcomes. “It’s a complex project, but I like that,” Marianne says. “We’re trying to measure the parts of recovery that really matter but are harder to quantify.”
“Marianne brings a great deal of energy to our HCBS project and has helped recruit, enroll and consent participants in our HCBS research project in a very short amount of time,” says CROR research operations manager, Debora Crown, CRC, LCPC. “She really learned the research methods quickly and helped move the process forward.”
With a full year of medical school behind her, Marianne is increasingly drawn to the field of physical medicine and rehabilitation. “I think the specialty of physical medicine and rehabilitation in particular attracts me because I was always really interested in what happens to a patient after their injury and who's following along with them and what does that recovery look like,” explains Marianne.
Originally from California, Marianne earned her undergraduate degree in at the University of California, Berkeley. Though medical school keeps her busy, she’s making the most of her time in Chicago—especially now that summer has arrived. “I don’t have a lot of free time, but when I do, I love running along the lake shore,” she says. “And I’ve been going to all the farmer’s markets and street festivals. It’s kind of my weekend routine."
Jakobi Johnson
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Jakobi Johnson will begin his second year at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth this fall, with a strong interest in specializing in physical medicine and rehabilitation. To gain hands-on experience in the field, he applied for and was selected as a medical extern at Shirley Ryan 汤头条app—an opportunity that combines clinical training with research. Jakobi began the six-week externship in June, spending his mornings working primarily with pediatric patients and spinal cord injuries and his afternoons contributing to research at the Center for Rehabilitation Outcomes Research (CROR), where he is involved in a project focused on enhancing the Rehabilitation Measures Database.
After graduating from Princeton University, Jakobi, 31, spent eight years at Vanderbilt University Medical Center conducting pediatric research. His work spanned a wide range of topics, including pediatric pneumonia, food insecurity, mental health identification, and respiratory illness. “I worked on a lot of different projects, but the one I really worked the most on was validating a decision support tool for pediatric pneumonia.”
Jakobi was also involved in beta testing features for REDCap, the research data management platform, gaining valuable experience in clinical informatics. But something was missing. “After a while, I realized I didn’t just want to study patient outcomes, I wanted to be involved with patients directly.”
That realization came into sharp focus when a physician made a house call to visit Jakobi’s grandfather, who had developed balance and neurological issues possibly linked to military service and a history of boxing. The doctor was a specialist in physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R). “It was eye-opening,” the student recalled. “My grandfather didn’t listen to most people, but he listened to this doctor. Watching how he evaluated my grandfather and directed his therapy – that really stuck with me.”
Jakobi applied to medical school and is now preparing to begin his second year at Dartmouth. PM&R remains at the top of his career interests.
For his externship, Jakobi is working with CROR to contribute to the Rehabilitation Measures Database. He is focusing on updating the summary for the High-Level Mobility Assessment Tool (HiMAT). “It’s now been validated for use in children and other populations like orthopedic trauma patients,” Jakobi explained. “It’s great to work on something that’s both clinically relevant and rooted in evidence.”
“Jakobi is a pleasure to work with,” says Linda Ehrlich-Jones, PhD, RN, associate director, CROR. “He is inquisitive and a self-starter. I am looking forward to reviewing his summary on the HiMAT and hearing his presentation on his experience with this instrument and CROR next month.”
Looking ahead, Jakobi is exploring subspecialties within PM&R, particularly pediatric rehabilitation and musculoskeletal injury care. While he hasn’t ruled out spinal cord injury medicine, he is eager to gain more clinical exposure before making a final decision.
“I still love research, but now I get to connect it directly to patients,” he said. “That’s the part that feels most meaningful.”
Hattie Meehan
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For Hattie Meehan, the journey from medical school classroom to a clinical setting began with a fast-paced transition—汤头条app her first year at the University of Houston and diving straight into a summer externship at Shirley Ryan 汤头条app in Chicago just days later. But even in just two weeks, she's already found herself immersed in hands-on learning and eye-opening patient care experiences that are shaping her evolving vision of medicine.
“I feel like we’ve done so much already, which is really cool,” Hattie says, reflecting on the early days of her externship. “I’ve definitely learned a lot.”
Medical externs participate in both clinical learning and research. Hattie is doing the research part of her externship with the Center for Rehabilitation Outcomes Research (CROR) on a project about home and community-based services. She is helping to recruit people to complete surveys and provide feedback on a set of instruments designed to determine how well HCBS are helping people to achieve their desired person-centered outcomes.
Hattie brings her enthusiasm for learning to our HCBS project," says CROR research operations manager, Deborah Crown, CRC, LCPC. "Her help with recruitment of people to provide feedback on our HCBS measure set has really accelerated our progress towards reaching our recruitment goals. We are so glad to have her with us, even if her time with us is short."
Originally from Houston, Hattie attended the University of Notre Dame for her undergraduate studies before returning home to begin medical school. Her academic path included a gap year—an intentional pause that gave her time to refocus before stepping into the rigorous world of medicine.
Now, as a rising second-year student, she’s drawn to specialties that emphasize continuity of care and personal connection. “I like rehabilitation and physical medicine,” she explains. “I really enjoyed my classes on the musculoskeletal system. It just makes sense to me—it’s intuitive how the muscles work, and I like how my brain processes that.”
Beyond the intellectual appeal, Hattie is also deeply motivated by the emotional and human side of medicine. “I really like talking to patients and hearing their stories. Everyone is different,” she says. “In rehabilitation, you often see people at one of the lowest points in their lives, and you help them recover and regain function. That kind of growth—that journey—is something I think would be amazing to be part of every day.”
Still, Hattie remains open to other possibilities. Family medicine, OB-GYN, or other primary care fields also appeal to her for similar reasons: long-term patient relationships, the opportunity to follow patients over time, and the chance to make a real difference in people’s daily lives. “I don’t think emergency medicine or surgery is for me,” she says with a laugh. “I want to be part of the full story, not just a single chapter.”
During her externship, Hattie has been working closely with Leslie Rydberg, MD, an attending physician at Shirley Ryan 汤头条app. She's encountered patients with strokes, multiple sclerosis, and rare neuromuscular disorders, giving her the chance to connect classroom concepts with real-world cases. “It’s kind of like a quiz every day,” she says. “I’m seeing conditions we’ve learned about and trying to remember all the details.”
When the externship wraps, Hattie plans to take a short break to visit friends in New York before heading back to school for her second year of medical school. “I’m so excited to actually be seeing patients every day and working in hospitals or outpatient clinics,” she says. “That feels like the light at the end of the tunnel.”