Military Injury Research

Dr. Dan Rhon

How much do we really know about injury risk and prevention? Our guest this week argues it's less than most people think, so we dive into the state of the research to figure out why.

There aren't many people as qualified as Dr. Dan Rhon to discuss the problem of musculoskeletal injuries in the military. He has a bachelors in applied health, a masters in physical therapy, and THREE doctorates: one in physical therapy, one in orthopedic physical therapy, and one in physiotherapy.

All of those degrees are a bit ironic because he originally enlisted as an infantry marine because he didn't really think school was for him. That led him to going through marine corps infantry school, the scout swimmers course, the scout sniper course, SERE, and the special purpose recon and surveillance course. So he has military chops beyond his extensive medical qualifications.

He's been a hospital staff physical therapist, brigade combat team physical therapist while deployed to Iraq, research center director, USARIEM research fellow, and various faculty and professor positions across a few university and clinical settings.

He also lists 174 peer reviewed publications, well over 100 national and international presentations, and $35 million in total funding for projects where he was the primary investigator.