Edgar Ramos Vieira BS, MSc, PT, PhD

Dr. Vieira is a tenured associate professor in the department of physical therapy at Florida International University. He is also an investigator at the Baptist Hospital of Miami and at the Miami Veteran Affairs (VA) Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center (GRECC). In addition, he is a member of CDC’s Special Emphasis Panel for Injury Control Research Centers (R49). His expertise is in risk assessment and prevention of ageing-related mobility impairments, frailty and falls. He has BSc and MSc degrees in physical therapy and a PhD in rehabilitation science. During the PhD, he studied patient transfer-related low back injuries in nurses. He did a post-doc in qualitative and mixed-methods research, and another one evaluating mobility impairments and falls risk in older adults.

His research program aims to help older adults to stay functionally independent by optimizing mobility, preventing frailty, falls and related injuries. Dr. Vieira has experience in supervising graduate students, post-docs, and visiting professors. He has completed several projects and published close to 100 papers, which have been cited over 2800 times. In the last 5 years, Dr. Vieira had 13 funded projects by agencies such as the Florida Department of Health, and the Administration for Community Living (ACL-HHS). He identified that functional decline is associated with mobility impairments, frailty and falls in older adults and these can be reduced by well-designed interventions including exercise and diet.