October 22, 2026
The American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (AAPM&R) has named Abby Cheng, MD, one of its 2026 Early PM&R Career Award winners.
The Early PM&R Career Award honors Academy members who have made an impact on the future of physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R) through distinction in innovation, advocacy, leadership, service, or clinical practice within ten or fewer years in practice.
As a clinician scientist, her research program aims to optimize the conservative management of chronic musculoskeletal pain and related impairment by addressing biopsychosocial comorbidities as part of a person-centered comprehensive treatment plan. Her work has been supported by numerous federal research institutes, including NIAMS, NIMH, and AHRQ. She has particularly focused on investigating the effectiveness and implementation of an interprofessional, lifestyle medicine approach to address chronic musculoskeletal pain and common comorbidities; understanding the importance of, and potential for, addressing mental health in the setting of musculoskeletal care; and evaluating the rate and predictors of success of conservative management for non-arthritic hip-related pain. She also serves as a clinical expert collaborator to investigate biomarkers of myofascial pain and to evaluate the impact of dosage and timing on the safety of steroid injections in large joints.
In recent years, Dr. Cheng has contributed to PM&R’s leadership role in addressing the individual and societal burden of Long COVID. In addition to serving as the Medical Director of the WashU Long COVID clinic, she is a co-chair of the AAPM&R Long COVID Collaborative and co-led development of the AAPM&R Long COVID mental health and compendium guidance statements.
Dr. Cheng was a member of the Council of Medical Specialty Societies (CMSS) Long COVID Expert Panel, and she is the lead principal investigator of WashU’s AHRQ “first of its kind” cooperative U18 grant to improve access to Long COVID care. As part of this grant, her team has developed two patient- and clinician-facing resource websites: LongCOVID-STL.org and LongCOVIDrehab.wustl.edu.
Dr. Cheng is also passionate about applying research expertise to advance the field of
PM&R. She serves as the Resident Research Director for WashU Physiatry, is an associate editor for the Academy’s journal Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and a member of the AAPM&R Quality and Research Steering Committee.