Dr. Rami Said's PhD Journey
The Programs in Physical Therapy had the privilege of sitting down with Dr. Rami Said, who recently earned his PhD. In this interview, we discussed his journey and what he plans to do next. Read the entire interview below.
What inspired you to pursue a PhD? Being a clinician inspired me to educate the future physical therapists to come and in order to do that at the graduate level, I was advised that a PhD would set me up to accomplish that goal.
Can you share a moment in your journey where you knew this was the right career path? Often, PTs are the first medical clinicians to listen to a patient’s story.
One particular patient comes to mind – a woman was complaining of back pain that was a mild intensity but persistent and unwavering if positions or activities would change. This raised some concerns with me that perhaps the low back pain was not related to a musculoskeletal etiology. Following my instincts, I asked more questions, and her answers led me to question if PT was the appropriate treatment for her, at that moment. So, I asked the patient to kindly be seen by her other physicians first (ie, general physician or gynecologist), because it had been quite a while since either of these practitioners had seen her. Unfortunately, despite trying to reach out to her, she had not returned my phone calls. Almost a year later, this woman came back to see me without an appointment just to share that her experience with me potentially saved her life. She went to see her physicians, as we discussed, and they discovered early stages of ovarian cancer that we suspected was the source of much of her low back pain. That experience led me to believe that PTs need to be great detectives at finding out the “why” in patient care or complaints – and teaching that to future PTs quickly turned into a long-term goal for me.
What challenges did you face working on your PhD, and how did you overcome them? The greatest challenges during my PhD came when sacrifice of being with family and friends had to occur. Despite knowing that working on my PhD was the better decision, it was always difficult to say “no” to my kids, my family, or my friends.
What was the focus of your research, and why is it important? The focus of my research was to evaluate a new way of looking at range of motion at the ankle. Many times, clinicians consider passive and active motion as the same – but they tell us quite different information. So rather than look at these values individually, I explored the
relationship between the two values and how that may relate to greater hip and knee range of motion. If we shift our focus to this relationship, we may glean more information of how to address the deficits between the two.
How do you see your research impacting PT? I think my research would impact PT by opening our eyes to the possibilities that range of motion / ratio of motion is critical to movement compensations.
How will earning your PhD influence your teaching and mentorship at Columbia? I strongly feel that teaching and completing research complement each other in/out of the classroom.
What advice do you have for alumni and students considering a path like this? Find a program that will work for you and your lifestyle.
What's next for your research and career? Next for my research is to expand these theories.
How did you celebrate earning your PhD? Drinks and dinner with my family and friends....but I'm still celebrating!