Academic Interests
Douglas E. Garland, M.D.: As Director of the Neurotrauma Division (formerly SCI Service) of Rancho Los Amigos Medical Center and Clinical Professor of Orthopedics at USC, Dr. Garland has extensive experience in bone disease in persons with SCI (Spinal Cord Injury). He has been associated with Rancho for the past 18 years and has authored the most comprehensive article to date on bone density (by dual-photon absorptiometry) in patients with acute spinal cord injury. At several national meetings of ASIA, Dr. Garland has moderated and presented on topics related to osteoporosis in patients with SCI. At the 1995 meeting of ASIA, he presented the first study addressing regional osteoporosis in women with SCI. He has been a member of the Program Committee for seven years, is Chairperson of the Prevention Committee, Secretary-Treasurer and on his second term as Board Member of ASIA.
Dr. Garland, with over 100 published scientific articles and book chapters, has been particularly interested in bone metabolism, specifically in the disabled. He helped develop a pulsed electromagnetic stimulating (PEMF) unit for treating non-unions of long bones, and he is presently using this same device to stimulate bone formation within the knee in chronic SCI patients. He has studied the fracture response in long bones extensively in both SCI and traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients. Over the past ten years, a significant amount of his research time has been devoted to osteoporosis in the SCI patient. He has studied heterotopic ossification (HO) in both of these populations for 15 years and has written definitive articles on treatment. He was involved in the early clinical evaluation of the bisphosphonate, Didronel, in preventing HO and his work remains the present basis for its use.
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