Rusk, Howard A

American internist and rehabilitation medicine pioneer Howard A. Rusk (1901–89) was fundamentally responsible for the development of comprehensive multidisciplinary neurorehabilitation in the US Army Air Forces and later across all of the US military services during World War II. Rusk's efforts during and after the war were also instrumental in the development of rehabilitation medicine as a medical specialty, and in the implementation of comprehensive neurorehabilitation for stroke, spinal cord injury, and other neurological conditions in civilian populations after World War II.