St. Louis, MO,  January 19, 2018 - Washington University Orthopedics and the Medical Program for Performing Artists has been chosen to provide medical care for the Center of Creative Arts’ (COCA) dancers, musicians, actors, artists and singers. 

Devyani Hunt, MD, a former ballet dancer herself and a physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist, will serve as lead medical consultant for COCA. Hunt is an Associate Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at Washington University School of Medicine and Co-Director of the Medical Program for Performing Artists (MPPA)

“Performing artists are at increased risk for repetitive use injuries,” Hunt says, “In working with COCA, we will provide a multifaceted medical program with evaluations on site at COCA, medical coverage during performances and seminars for faculty and students on various topics from anatomy to injury prevention.  When injuries do occur, we want to treat the issue but also understand why it may have happened and get the student back on stage, dancing stronger and even better than before their injury.”

Lynette Khoo-Summers, DPT, Co-Director of the Medical Program for Performing Artists (MPPA) and former ballet dancer, will work in collaboration with Hunt to help condition and treat the performers.  They will both be on-site at COCA, one afternoon per month to provide orthopedic injury evaluation and physical therapy advice to COCA’s students and faculty.

The MPPA was established in 1988, by the late Jerome Gilden, an orthopedic specialist in the School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital. Gliden retired in 1998, and in 2004, Hunt, Khoo-Summers and Heidi Prather, DO, Professor of Orthopedic Surgery and Chief of the section of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, revived the program. Recently, Aaron Chamberlain, MD, a shoulder specialist with Washington University Orthopedics and violinist, also joined the program.  The specialists involved in the program have experience with artists and understand the unique needs of performers. The goal is to get the performers back to doing what they love — performing.