Caroline Vail, DO

Career Interests:

• Chemodenervation and interventional spasticity management
• Disability rights advocacy
• Adaptive sports
• Patient education
• Medical education
• Pregnancy and sexual health in patients with SCI
• Quality of life
• Autonomic dysfunction

Why did you choose UPMC?

Spinal Cord Injury Medicine (SCIM) is, to me, one of the hallmarks of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R). When someone has an SCI, either by trauma or another process, their entire physiology instantly changes and continues to evolve for the rest of their life. We get to encounter every individual patient along with their support systems and meet them wherever they are at emotionally, mentally, and physically with the injury. This field allows me to develop meaningful relationships with patients and their loved ones from the beginning of their injuries and through the rest of their lives. Every person's goals are different; I feel personally fulfilled when I am working with people on short-term/long-term solutions to their problems and when I am helping people have a better quality of life. The beautiful thing about this kind of process is that it is not in a vacuum. The patient has an interdisciplinary team full of experts, all of whom the SCIM physician has the privilege of also learning from- this includes nurses, physical/occupational/speech therapists, assistive/adaptive equipment experts, orthotists/prosthetists, care managers, disability advocates, care managers, researchers among other departments.

UPMC attracted me because of the well-established clinical excellence in SCIM but also because it is a large healthcare system that offers its patients many specialized services. Not only is UPMC a nationally designated model center in SCI, their faculty are exceptional mentors and medical educators. I am especially excited to take part in broadening my techniques for interventional spasticity/chemodenervation management including ultrasound-guided and EMG approaches. They have several opportunities for advancing clinical education including a medical education track for trainees, high volume outpatient clinics (both procedural and non-procedural), and robust inpatient training. 

Personal Interests:

• Canoeing
• Kayaking
• Dragon boating