Senior Research Clinician
National Institute of Health
Katharine E. Alter MD, FAAP, FAAPMR, FAANEM is a Pediatric and Adult Physiatrist at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda Maryland where she is a Senior Research Clinician and serves as the Medical Director of the Neurorehabilitation and Biomechanics Section within Rehabilitation Medicine. Prior to joining NIH full time in 2014 Dr. Alter worked at NIH part-time while she remained in clinical practice in the Washington DC region of the USA. In her clinical practice Dr. Alter has served as the Medical Director of Rehabilitation Medicine at Mount Washington Pediatric Hospital (1998-2014), an affiliate of Johns Hopkin’s and the University of Maryland and as a staff physiatrist at National Rehabilitation Hospital in Washington DC (1989-1998). She continues to serve in a clinical role at MWPH as a senior physiatrist focusing on the treatment of muscle hypertonia and related disorders.
Dr. Alter’s clinical and investigative interests include the assessment and treatment of neurological and musculoskeletal impairments in children and adults including movement disorders, cerebral palsy, stroke, muscle hypertonia, neuromuscular disorders, brachial plexus palsy, patellofemoral pain and other conditions affecting children and adults. Her current research projects include the evaluation and treatment of muscle hypertonia, non-invasive functional brain imaging, botulinum toxin chemodenervation procedures and the development of ultrasound imaging techniques for diagnostic purposes and procedural guidance for a variety of MSK and Neurological disorders.