Joan E. Edelstein, MA, PT, FISPO, CPed is a world-renowned authority in prosthetics and orthotics. Beginning clinical practice in the Children’s Division of the Institute of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, subsequently named the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine at New York University, she then joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin. Returning to New York, she became senior research scientist in New York University’s Prosthetics and Orthotics Program, originally part of the College of Engineering, later under the joint aegis of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery in the School of Medicine and the Department of Prosthetics and Orthotics in the School of Education. The program awarded the world’s first baccalaureate in prosthetics and orthotics. She conducted research on prostheses and orthoses for the upper and lower limbs, as well as trunk orthoses. Following the closing of the department, she became Associate Professor of Clinical Physical Therapy at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University and served as the Director of the Program in Physical Therapy there. Highly regarded for her spirited instruction, she is a special lecturer at Columbia University and adjunct faculty member at New York University, Husson University, Touro College, and Eneslow Pedorthic Institute. Professor Edelstein presents postgraduate and continuing education courses throughout North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Her numerous publications include journal articles, book chapters, monographs, and books, particularly Orthotics: A Comprehensive Clinical Approach and Prosthetics and Patient Management: A Comprehensive Clinical Approach, both published by SLACK Incorporated. A certified pedorthist, Professor Edelstein is a Fellow of the International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics.
Alex Moroz, MD, FACP, is an experienced educator in the field of disability and medical rehabilitation. Dr. Moroz graduated from Brooklyn College and New York University’s School of Medicine, then trained in rehabilitation medicine at the world-renowned Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine, where he was invited to join its faculty in 2000, and is a full-time Assistant Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine at the School of Medicine, New York University. Prior to focusing on medical education, Dr. Moroz worked at Bellevue Hospital Prosthetic and Orthotic Clinics for several years. He has directed over 30 educational courses for physicians at New York University over the last decade, including 22 courses in prosthetics and orthotics where more than 1700 rehabilitation and orthopedic physicians have benefited from his educational leadership. He has also developed a Lower Extremity Prosthetics and Orthotics course for orthopedic surgery residents. An editor of the textbook Medical Aspects of Disability, he is also a contributing editor of Rehab in Review. Dr. Moroz has authored numerous peer-reviewed studies published in Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, American Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, International Journal of Rehabilitation Research, Topics in Geriatric Rehabilitation, and Journal of the American Geriatric Society, among other periodicals.