In her office at the new Washington University Orthopedics and Barnes-Jewish Hospital Outpatient Orthopedic Center in Chesterfield, Heidi Prather, D.O., first lowers her eyes, then looks at the ceiling for a moment as she recalls her decision to go into physical medicine and rehabilitation as a specialty and to focus a part of her practice primarily on women.
“I’ve never told this story,” she says. “My mentor during residency, who happened to be male, once looked at me and said, ‘Since you’re going into academic medicine, you’d better figure out these things about women because we men aren’t going to.’ That’s honestly when I thought, ‘OK, that can be my issue.’”
That was during her residency at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, which is home to the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine’s Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Her mentor, Joel M. Press, M.D., says he was mostly telling her things she already knew.
“She always understood that it’s about the patient,” says Press, director of the Rehabilitation Institute’s Spine and Sports Rehabilitation Center in Chicago. “By focusing on patient needs, both women and men, she’s become a leader in our field. She’s also been able to build one of the best musculoskeletal fellowship programs around and helped improve the already outstanding reputation of Washington University Orthopedics.”
Prather, an associate professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation, is the first woman president of the Physiatric Association of Spine, Sports and Occupational Rehabilitation. In that capacity, she’s getting a chance to raise awareness nationally among physiatrists (those who specialize in physical medicine and rehabilitation) regarding issues involving women and injuries.
She says when treating an injured woman, doctors — and physiatrists in particular — must consider the continuum of the lifecycle for women and where the woman is along that timeline when she experiences an injury or impairment.
“There are pre-pubertal women versus post-pubertal,” she explains. “Then there’s before babies, during pregnancy, immediately post-partum, pre-menopausal, post-menopausal and aging. Where a woman is on that timeline will greatly influence her musculoskeletal function. Men simply don’t undergo the same kinds of changes.”
For example, when a pre-menopausal woman has a compression fracture of the spine, Prather immediately worries about early osteoporosis. A similar fracture in an older woman also might be due to weakened bones, but determining the cause of such a fracture — an important factor in determining treatment and rehabilitation — is especially urgent for a woman of 40.
“I might easily see what the problem is, but figuring out why a woman has the problem is key,” she says. “If I don’t learn the cause, there’s a good chance she may face that same problem in the future.”
Music and tennis
Prather herself has been happy to avoid injuries lately. Because she’s been injury-free, she’s been running quite a bit. She says she rarely exercises when injured.
Heidi Prather, D.O. Born: May 20, 1965, Kansas City, Mo.
Education: Bachelor of arts with honors, biology and chemistry, 1987, Drury College; D.O., University of Health Sciences College of Osteopathic Medicine, 1991
University position: Associate professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation, Washington University Orthopedics
Family: Son, Ethan Bradley (10); daughter, Emma Bradley (6); husband, Jeffrey Bradley, M.D.; mother, Becky Prather; father, Carl Prather; sister, Gretchen Evans
|
“I don’t overdo it because when I work with my patients, I see what can happen,” she says. “I’m pretty good when I’m hurt. I rest, and then I usually go around and ask other physicians and physical therapists to look at me. I find it’s usually better to trust someone else than to try to diagnose yourself.”
She grew up in Kansas City in a family of musical tennis players. Her father, Carl Prather, was a band director. Her mom, Becky, played drums. Heidi herself took up the trumpet and attended Drury College in Springfield, Mo., on a music scholarship, playing in the symphonic band and other musical groups, including the professional symphony in Springfield. But she never wanted music to be “work,” hoping instead to use it as an outlet.
These days, she plays piano to relax after long nights of dictation. She’d like to return to music more seriously someday, but that will have to wait until her kids Ethan, 10, and Emma, 6, are a little older. Much of her spare time these days is spent as a “soccer mom,” attending games and practices and taking turns shuttling them to Tae Kwon Do and dance lessons with her husband, Jeffrey D. Bradley, M.D., associate professor of radiation oncology at the Siteman Cancer Center.
She calls herself the least talented tennis player in the family, but she still managed to compete at Drury. Her younger sister, Gretchen, was the star, however, and still competes in sanctioned tournaments, recently playing in a national event.
In addition to running, Prather also rode her bike across Missouri this summer, accompanying her mentor, Joel Press. She was with him for 213 miles of his cross-country bike trip called the Ride for Rehab. Missouri was only a small portion of his total trip, but Prather made enough of an impression to receive official recognition as the Ride for Rehab’s “top female physiatrist rider without twins.”
They may play different sports, but the Hirsch twins are, indeed, mirrors of each other. Active in basketball, softball and soccer for much of their childhood, Jennifer and Alayna Hirsch have undergone knee surgeries to treat ligament tears. Now, after some well-spent time helping each other recover and prepare for active sports seasons, both are in their senior year at Millikin University in Decatur, IL.
Mary Martinez is back to bowling and golfing and is “doing fantastic,” though she says she’s under doctor’s orders not to lift refrigerators or break up concrete. Just one year ago, the 60-year-old Martinez was treated for lung cancer that had metastasized to her spine, and Jacob Buchowski, MD, MS, had to implant two artificial vertebrae to replace those that had been consumed by cancer. 
