DEBORAH GAEBLER-SPIRA, MD

Deborah Gaebler-Spira completed a Pediatric residency at the University of Chicago and then pursued a residency in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation residency at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab (previously Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago). She is board certified in Pediatrics, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine. She has been affiliated with Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Children’s Memorial Hospital as a Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Pediatrics at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab for 25 years.

Her primary clinical work is with children with cerebral palsy and spasticity management. She is past president of the American Academy of Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine. Her research interests have been in management of spasticity and have obtained United Cerebral Palsy grants to evaluate the impact of Botulinum Toxins on the child as well as dance for motor learning and the child with cerebral palsy. She has collaborated with the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago Bioengineers on measurement of Hypertonia and worked with the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers grant “Technologies for Children with Orthopedic Disabilities.”