The Edward Lowman Award History

At one time the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine was the professional organization of physical medicine physicians, under the name "American Congress of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation". With the professionalization of the "allied health" professions after the second world war, reflecting their ever more important role in medical rehabilitation, the expertise and authority that once was concentrated in the physician became distributed over the entire team. The physicians who most keenly advocated for their patients' well-being saw this as a gain rather than a loss. One of them was Edward Lowman, MD, who spent most of his career at the Rusk Institute in New York, but whose impact was felt across the nation.

Edward Lowman trained and served as a rheumatologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota before he became a professor of rehabilitation medicine at the Rusk Institute of New York University. He was a highly respected clinician at the Rusk Institute and within the broad field of rehabilitation medicine. He served on many national advisory boards, including that of the Veterans Administration.
Dr. Lowman was a very competent administrator who held the title of Clinical Director at the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine. As such, all of the clinical services reported to him; PT, OT, speech, nursing, etc. His strong conviction about the importance of an interdisciplinary team in the care of severely disabled patients was a hallmark of his medical care. His relationship with the staff that comprised "his team" was mutually respectful. He was extremely loyal, almost to a fault. If you were on "his team", he supported you unconditionally. He always asked for input and recommendations from the treating staff, beyond what was reported at team meetings. The decision, however, was always made by him. Consequently, the people who worked most closely with him always "went the extra mile" to accommodate him.

Ed Lowman became very active in the American Congress of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Medicine in the 1960's. The respect he felt for each member of the therapy team influenced him to urge a change in the eligibility rules for membership. It had been, since its founding, a medical organization in which only physiatrists were eligible for membership. Dr. Lowman's proposed that it became a multidisciplinary professional group open to all therapies involved in the care of the disabled patient. The proposal was eventually accepted by vote of the Executive Committee and the membership, and resulted in the change of the name to the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine.

Dr. Lowman also strongly advocated for the inclusion of physical medicine and rehabilitation services (inpatient and outpatient) in the Medicare program. He was instrumental in the enactment of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 which established the forerunner of the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR), and many other measures to improve the lives of children and adults with disabilities. He would spend a significant amount of time strategizing with the legislative lobbyist in Washington, DC, and calling and writing to legislators that he grew to know well enough to call by their first names.

(Based in part on reminiscences by Jerome Tobis MD, FACRM and Anna Fay)

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