Sukhvinder Kalsi-Ryan, BScPT, MSc, PhD

Dr. Kalsi-Ryan, currently a clinician scientist in the field of spine pathology, has been an active clinician in the Spine Program at the Toronto Western Hospital for the last 19 years. She is a Licensed Physical Therapist who has been involved in the rehabilitation care of both ambulatory and non-ambulatory patients. In addition to her clinical work she conducts clinical research; focused on outcomes of spine and SCI interventions. Her research is oriented to establishing quantification methods and neuro-restorative methods to enhance/optimize function for those with neurological impairment. She provides academic teaching within the Neurosurgical Resident training program and Physical Therapy program at the University of Toronto.

Special Interests: Outcome Measurement, Upper Limb Recovery in Tetraplegia, Traumatic and Non Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury, Quantification of Neurological Disorders
The purpose of my work looks to refine the methods used to characterize disease in the clinical setting, understand disease and progression and establish methods to enhance function for those with disease. This work is multi-faceted and has many phases to completion. However, ultimately my work leads to influencing practice and how patients are cared for. I envision that the work I will do in only a few specific diseases will help define a well established framework that can be applied to any neurological disease to enhance management methods for disease in general.  Thus, the focus of my research will enhance how we study disease in detail with sensitive outcomes and how this valuable data enriches and informs our treatment options.

For a list of Dr. Kalsi-Ryan's publications, please visit PubMed, Scopus or ORCID.


Assistant Professor (status only), Department of Physical Therapy, University of Toronto
Faculty Member, Rehabilitation Sciences Institute, University of Toronto