Captain Karen Siegel, U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps
Chief Therapist Officer
As chief therapist officer, CAPT Karen Siegel leads U.S. Public Health Service therapy professional affairs, advising the Office of the Surgeon General and the Department of Health and Human Services on the recruitment, assignment, deployment, retention, and career development of Public Health Service audiologists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, and speech-language pathologists. During her Commissioned Corps career, CAPT Siegel has helped to pioneer clinical movement analysis, a new field of clinical service that assists in the evaluation, diagnosis, and rehabilitation of movement disorders, and ultimately improves the lives of people with disabilities.
CAPT Siegel joined the Corps in 1985 as a physical therapist at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center. In 1988, when she transferred to a unique office in the Physical Disabilities Branch at NIH, the field of clinical movement analysis was still in its infancy. At that time, using motion capture technology in clinical and research fields was a relatively new practice. The technologies for tracking skeletal and muscular movement existed, but they had only been applied to study athletes. Now they are even used in Hollywood moviemaking.
"We were some of the first professionals to apply this emerging technology to the study of patients with movement disorders," she explains. "My initial challenge at that time was to bridge the gap between the clinicians and technical staff to create something meaningful."
Today, as the senior staff specialist at NIH's Movement Analysis Lab, CAPT Siegel is responsible for overseeing all operational aspects of the lab, from coordinating patient data collection to presenting findings in journal articles and at conferences. Her work puts her in the unique position of conducting research that significantly affects a wide range of people with disabilities while providing individual patients with direct care.
CAPT Siegel recalls one patient she served who was experiencing trouble walking because of a partial foot amputation. "We analyzed her movement and the forces she exerted on her foot while walking to determine the best course of action. I was able to redesign her shoe based on the data we collected. After trying on the modified shoe, the patient told me that it was the most normal she had walked since her surgery 5 years earlier. She was very grateful."
Uniformed service is a tradition in CAPT Siegel's family. Both her grandfather and her father served their country; her grandfather was a graduate of West Point and her father served in the U.S. Coast Guard. Because of her father's service, she grew up receiving her medical care through the U.S. Public Health Service. So, when she was presented with the opportunity to enlist in the Corps after attending physical therapy school and following her rotation at a Public Health Service facility, CAPT Siegel immediately accepted and has been serving her country ever since. She says her career in the Corps continues to provide her with new challenges, increasing responsibilities, and the satisfaction of knowing that she is making a difference.
If you are a therapy student or a therapist interested in the Commissioned Corps, take the next step! E-mail us your questions, call us at 800-279-1605, or apply online now.