Position
Adjunct Professor and Peter William Chair for the Center for Cerebral Palsy
Contact
UCLA / Orthopaedic Institute for Children Department of Orthopaedic Surgery
David Geffen School of Medicine
Rehabilitation Center 22-70
1000 Veteran Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1795
310-825-4028 Telephone
EDUCATION
- Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts
B.S. in Physical Therapy
- University of California at Los Angeles
Ph.D. in Physiological Sciences*1990
- M.S. in Physiological Sciences* 1986
Major area of concentration: Biomechanics
Minor area of concentration: Motor Control
* formerly Kinesiology
RESEARCH AREA
Dr. Fowler's research focus is in motor disorders due to developmental disabilities and genetics. She is the Director of the Kameron Gait and Motion Analysis Lab and the Director of Research and Education for the UCLA/Orthopaedic Hospital Center for Cerebral Palsy. Her research addresses mechanisms responsible for impaired motor function and promising interventions. She recently developed of a valid and reliable clinical method to evaluate selective voluntary motor control in patients with spastic cerebral palsy. The role of selective motor control as a predictor for successful outcomes following hamstring lengthenings and physical therapy, including robotics, is currently being studied. She has performed clinical trials to examine the effect of pharmacological agents on muscle strength in Duchenne muscular dystrophy. She was the Lead Investigator for a recently completed randomized controlled trial to examine the effect of a stationary cycling intervention to improve strength and cardiorespiratory fitness in children with spastic diplegic cerebral palsy.
Biomechanics of Movement and Motor Control.
GRANTS
Principal Investigator: Pediatric Orthopedic Society of North America. "The relationship between selective voluntary motor control and changes in gait kinematics following hamstring lengthening surgery in children with spastic cerebral palsy" A study to examine selective voluntary motor control in children as a prognostic factor for gait improvements following orthopedic surgery.
AWARDS / INVENTIONS
- Jack Walker Award for best article on clinical research published in Physical Therapy in 2001 presented by the American Physical Therapy Association
White Swan Award in recognition of achievements as Director of Research and Education for UCLA/Orthopaedic Hospital Center for Cerebral Palsy, presented by AbilityFirst Foundation, Inc. June, 2003
- 2006 Award from the American Physical Therapy Association Section on Pediatrics for Outstanding Sustained Research Efforts Pertaining to Pediatric Physical Therapy.
- Biomet Research Award, Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America, May 2009
PUBLICATIONS (recent articles)
- Skura CL, Fowler EG, Wetzel GT, Graves M, Spencer MJ. Albuterol Increased Lean Body Mass in Ambulatory Boys with Duchenne or Becker Muscular Dystrophy. Neurology 70:137-43, 2008.
- Goldberg E, Requejo P, Fowler EG. Effect of direct measurement versus cadaver estimates of anthropometry in the calculation of joint moments during above-knee prosthetic gait in pediatrics. J Biomech. 41:695-700, 2008.
- Fowler EG and Goldberg E. The effect of lower extremity selective voluntary motor control on intersegmental coordination in children with spastic diplegic cerebral palsy. Gait and Posture 29:102-107, 2009.
- Fowler EG, Staudt LA, Greenberg MB, Oppenheim WL. Selective control assessment of the lower extremity (SCALE): development, validation, and interrater reliability of a clinical tool for patients with cerebral palsy. Dev. Med. Child Neurol. 51:607-614, 2009.
- Fowler EG, Knutson LM, DeMuth SK, Siebert KL, Simms VD, Sugi MH, Souza RB, Karim R, Azen SP for the Physical Therapy Clinical Research Network (PTClinResNet). Pediatric endurance and limb strengthening for children with cerebral palsy (PEDALS) utilizing stationary cycling: a randomized controlled trial. Phys. Ther. (in press)
PUBMED PUBLICATIONS
Link to My Pubmed Publications >
