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Setting high goals for her patients' recovery is the approach of Zoraya Parrilla, MD, as she explores an array of treatments and partnerships in seeking to restore the lives of brain-injury patients.

"Being a rehabilitator, my main goal is to get the patient back to function as much as possible," she said. "I always try to reach the limit of those possibilities."

That's good news for patients at Methodist Rehabilitation Center in Jackson, where Parrilla took the reins in January as director of the Brain Injury Program.

She comes to MRC from Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, where she served as medical director for Rehabilitation of Brain Injury and Dysfunction.

Before this latest move, Mississippi wasn't even on the map in terms of her career path, she admits.

"I guess it was being in the right place at the right time that allowed me to learn that the position was open," she said. "I pretty much fell in love with the place, and it didn't take me too long to accept the position. This place is a well-kept secret."

A native of Puerto Rico, Parrilla came to the U.S. mainland in 1994 for residency work in physical medicine and rehabilitation. She received her medical degree from the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine.

She completed her residency at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park, N.Y. She then completed a fellowship in traumatic brain injury rehabilitation at the Institute for Rehabilitation and Research at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

In Miami, she also served as assistant professor of clinical rehabilitation medicine at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. She is board certified by the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.

Her years in training began with an interest in sports medicine, having been involved in sports herself as a young woman. Then rotations during medical school sparked her interest in neurology.

"That was really the area that hit me," she said. "I got to work with stroke and cerebral palsy patients, and those were the patients that touched me the most."

Her interests and experiences pointed her to the specialty of neuro-rehabilitation, and her mentor recommended her for a fellowship in that area.

"It's just a combination of what you can get out of science and what you can to do help patients," she said. "You know the brain does not stop healing, and the issue is how you can facilitate that healing, both medically speaking and through rehab.

"So it becomes very specialized, and always leaves room for your development and your knowledge to expand and be applied."

Parrilla's research areas include the psychopharmacological treatment of agitation and decreased cognition after brain injury, and the use of anticonvulsants to prevent post-traumatic seizures and sleep disorders after traumatic brain injury.

The past 15 years have witnessed an evolution in terms of treatment methods available to rehabilitators working with brain-injury patients, she said.

Emerging methods include the use of robotics to facilitate motor recovery, and the use of neural prosthetics to carry on key brain functions after injury.

The use of Baclofen and Botox pumps to treat spasticity is also something not all rehabilitation physicians are yet incorporating into their array of treatment options, she said.

"That really makes the difference between even rehabilitation doctors," she said. "The art now is to select patients for these types of therapies. If you don't have that particular expertise, you fall short in treating patients with brain injuries.

"You will be doing conventional therapy — when there's a whole bunch of new technology that you can apply."

At MRC, Parrilla is continuing to settle in to her new work environment by balancing clinical practice with the administrative tasks of reorganizing the program and meeting with physicians around the central Mississippi area.

"The main thing right now for me has been marketing and just letting people know about the services we offer," she said.

"At the same time, I am keeping four half-days of outpatient clinics. Most of our doctors have two, but there were patients waiting to be seen, and I wanted to make sure that waiting period is shortened as much as possible."

Outside of work, Parrilla's life has been centered around family and church. Back home in Miami, she and her family often spent time entertaining friends and grilling meals by the poolside.

Music has been a big part of their family life as well. In Miami, Parrilla sang as part of her church's worship team, which added rehearsals and worship gatherings to her weekly schedule.

"My husband is a percussionist and my daughter plays the piano, so we always have something musical going on," she said.

She and her husband, Jesus, have three children: Joan, 16, David, 12, and Gabriela, 2. She's looking forward to their joining her this summer after they complete their last school term in Florida.

Tags:

Albert Einstein School of Medicine, Jackson Miss., Methodist Rehabilitation Center, University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine, Zoraya Parilla

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