Clarkson Magazine

PT Master Builder Steps Down

Sam Feitelberg's leadership was key to Physical Therapy Program success

Samuel Feitelberg

In 1996, Samuel Feitelberg, a highly respected leader in the field of Physical Therapy (PT), joined the faculty and administration of Clarkson in the newly created position of Associate Dean for Health Sciences. Now, after nearly a decade, he retires from Clarkson leaving behind highly competitive, fully accredited degree programs, state-of-the-art facilities and laboratories, a first-rate faculty, and a successful clinical partnership with Canton-Potsdam Hospital.

When Sam Feitelberg came to Clarkson in 1996 he was charged with a daunting task: design and build from the bottom up a fully integrated PT degree, research and clinical program at Clarkson. But as Feitelberg recalls, that was the easy part.

"The greatest challenge was establishing a healthcare 'gestalt' at Clarkson," says Feitelberg. "The University had approved the program as a new area for excellence that was consistent with its interdisciplinary vision of science, engineering, liberal arts, and business. Yet Clarkson was synonymous with engineering and also known for its business and sciences curriculum. It was very difficult within the established mindset of the University to think of itself as being in the business of healthcare education."

Feitelberg had spent the previous 26 years at the University of Vermont (UVM) where, among other accomplishments, he established the PT Department, served as department chair, and was also associate dean and director of the Health Service Division in the School of Allied Health Sciences. In addition to running the academic programs, he directed PT and occupational therapy services at Fletcher Allen Medical Center in Burlington. Prior to that he founded the PT program at SUNY College of Health Related Professions, Downstate Medical Center in New York City (1965-1970).

Students participating in a program
called "Brttany's Knee"

"Sam was, and remains, an esteemed leader in the field, the result of an enormously successful 50-plus-year career as a physical therapist, administrator and program innovator in both university and hospital settings," says President Tony Collins. "Bringing someone of his professional stature to Clarkson was essential to fully realize the University's vision of creating a premier program that would educate future generations of physical therapists and provide technologically advanced facilities for research, training and patient rehabilitation."

Under Feitelberg's leadership, Clarkson's first Master of Therapy (MPT) class entered in the fall of 1999, the same year that the University began accepting first-year or transfer students in the pre-PT undergraduate degree program. He was assisted by Professor Leslie Russek, who had been Feitelberg's graduate student at UVM. Feitelberg also introduced the Problem-Based Learning format that is at the core of the Clarkson MPT curriculum.

"With a problem-based learning approach, students are presented with case studies or clinical 'problems,' which motivate students to search out the scientific and clinical information they need to understand the patient's condition and provide appropriate treatment," explains Feitelberg. "In this way the students learn how to work in teams, think critically, and use research evidence and logical, defensible thought processes."

Clarkson MPT students also receive valuable clinical experience from their first semester, when they are placed in hospitals, private practices, nursing homes or clinics and treat patients for several hours each week. Later, as they near graduation they must complete a 16-week professional internship at a healthcare facility somewhere in the United States where they are exposed to a wide variety of clinical situations. "The program is demanding and intensive, but the challenge is necessary for students in careers where they will have to make independent judgments and justify their decisions," says Feitelberg.

The program has also been remarkably successful. Today, 50 MPT students have graduated and 81 Pre-PT and MPT students are currently enrolled. The University has recently received state approval for a doctoral program. Clarkson has also partnered with area healthcare practices to build a PT and rehabilitation center of excellence that benefits the whole region. Faculty members are working in close collaboration with researchers at the Wallace H. Coulter School of Engineering toward developing a world-class reputation in rehabilitation engineering.

Professional Beginnings

Feitelberg's professional career began over five decades ago when he was appointed staff physical therapist at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City in 1953. He came equipped with a bachelor of science degree and a certificate in Physical Therapy from Columbia University. (He also received a master's degree in 1954.) Among his earliest patients were victims of Parkinson's Disease and polio.

"My entry into the field coincided with important medical and treatment advances that improved patient outcome and increased the role of physical therapy in recovery," says Feitelberg. "After World War II more emphasis was placed on the restoration of life. Until this time, people with disabilities, the elderly, or polio victims were shut away in their own homes or in hospital wards with few therapeutic options available to them. It was an exciting, hopeful time."

Gail and Sam Feitelberg and First Lady
Eleanor Roosevelt tour a healthcare facility at
Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in 1962.

Feitelberg served in the Army Medical Specialist Corps from 1954-56 during the Korean conflict. He was assigned to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., specializing in burn care and poliomyelitis. By 1959, he was the chief physical therapist at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital, then among the most advanced rehabilitation centers in the country. He co-wrote the highly influential medical pamphlet "Exercises for the Parkinson Patient," which is still widely used today. He also spent three years at Langley Space Center in Virginia developing an exercise program for astronauts and researching the effects of weightlessness on the body.

Feitelberg has been an invited and keynote speaker at dozens of conferences and delivered or published more than 70 papers. His professional honors include the Lucy Blair Service Award (1983) and the Diversity 2000 Award (1996), both from the American Physical Therapy Association. In 1997 he was appointed a Catherine Worthingham Fellow of APTA. At Clarkson's 112th commencement in May, Feitelberg was named professor emeritus in recognition of his valuable contributions to the University.