The Foundation for Physical Therapy announced in August that it has raised more than $2 million for its Center of Excellence (COE), two-thirds of the funds needed to launch the nation’s first center dedicated to expanding the number of physical therapy scientists in the field of health services and health policy.
The COE’s mission will be training the next generation of physical therapist investigators, who will gain the skills necessary to examine effective delivery, organization, financing, and analysis of outcomes.
The money will support the COE for five years and also fund health services and health policy research grants and scholarships through the foundation’s internal grant program.
The foundation will award a $2.5 million grant to the most qualified institution or health systems network to set up and manage the training program. The process to request applications for this opportunity is currently under development.
The progress of the campaign so far is due in large part to a generous leadership pledge of $1 million from the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA), the foundation reported. A growing number of the APTA’s components have followed suit by pledging to support this initiative.
In addition, the foundation noted it received support from every member of its board of trustees as well as a leadership gift from the Magistro Family Foundation.
