Two physiatrists appointed as assistant professors

Two new physiatrists have been appointed in the Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation and the Center for Musculoskeletal Care. Charles Odonkor, MD, is Assistant Professor of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation in the Clinical Educator track and Simon Shapiro, DO is Assistant Professor of Clinical Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation.

Drs. Odonkor and Shapiro officially started in their new roles Sept. 3 and will be in clinical practice on the shoreline in Connecticut, with Dr. Odonkor in Old Saybrook and Dr. Shapiro in New London.

Dr. Odonkor, a Yale School of Medicine graduate who completed his physical medicine and rehabilitation residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital, a pain medicine fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital, and postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University, became interested in medicine as a way to help alleviate the daily struggles some patients face with basic tasks due to pain or discomfort from musculoskeletal issues. “When I was in medical school, I had a patient tell me ‘pain stole my life,’” Dr. Odonkor says. "That was a moment that impacted me. I think to myself, ‘If this was a family member of mine, is this how I'd approach this problem?' It gives me an appreciation for the problems they are having."

He recalled watching the struggle of his father following a stroke in his native Ghana and saw the trouble his family faced with the rehabilitation process. For Dr. Odonkor the challenge is designing programs that fit a patient’s lifestyle and he enjoys finding ways to see the “whole picture of a patient’s life.”

“The way so many places approach patient care is piecemeal: we see one part, diagnose it, and try to fix it,” Dr. Odonkor says. "At Yale, where you have a place like the Center for Musculoskeletal Care, you can have all of these different specialists working together to address each part of a patient's rehabilitation."

When he is not in the clinic, he hopes to continue his lab research, particularly with wearable technologies like the Fitbit and Apple Watch, to see how they may be able to help patients with their rehabilitation remotely. His goal is toquantify functional outcomes and define digital biomarkers of mobility-limiting musculoskeletal disorders, he says.

Dr. Shapiro arrived in medicine through a different path. He started as a musician studying at Berklee College of Music in Boston before becoming interested in healing and Eastern medicine. Dr. Shapiro wanted to both broaden and deepen his knowledge, all while helping patients find a path to getting back to the activities they enjoy doing. He received his doctorate of osteopathic medicine from Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine in New York before completing his physical medicine and rehabilitation residency at Loyola University Medical Center in Illinois and interventional spine and sports medicine fellowship with the acclaimed Dr. Michael Furman.

Dr. Shapiro said he sees his role in part as a guide for interventional spine issues, helping patients find answers to their problems and prescribing treatments that will alleviate pain without surgery when possible. “Many people have back pain and we know it can be debilitating,” Dr. Shapiro says. “There are so many treatment options that it can be confusing for patients to navigate the system and know what to do. The interventional spine subspecialty focuses on spine problems and pain with an emphasis on non-operative as well as interventional approaches to pain management and functional optimization.”

Both Drs. Odonkor and Shapiro will be seeing patients who are a part of the Yale New Haven Health System Direct to Employer program called Y-Preferred.

They can be reached at charles.odonkor@yale.edu and simon.shapiro@yale.edu or by calling 1-877-YALEMDs for appointments.