Rate My Professor Nitin Jain

Nitin Jain, MD, MSPH, is the James W. Rae Legacy Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Chair of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Michigan Medical School, a position he assumed in February 2024. He concurrently serves as Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery. Previously, at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, he held the Dallas Rehabilitation Institute Distinguished Chair in Orthopaedic Rehabilitation and was a tenured Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Orthopaedic Surgery. In those roles, he acted as Vice Chair of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, co-director of the Musculoskeletal and Sports Medicine Program, and Director of the Musculoskeletal and Sports Research Program. Earlier, Dr. Jain was an associate professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Orthopaedics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where he directed Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Research.

Dr. Jain earned his MBBS from Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, India, in 1999, and his Master of Science in Public Health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2002. His training encompasses research fellowships in sports medicine and orthopaedics at Duke University and in epidemiology and outcomes at Harvard Medical School/Brigham and Women’s Hospital, an internship in medicine and surgery at Newton-Wellesley Hospital (2006-2007), residency in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital/Harvard Medical School (2007-2010), and a fellowship in Shoulder and Elbow Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (2010). His research centers on musculoskeletal disorders, including rotator cuff tears, glenohumeral osteoarthritis, knee osteoarthritis pain, and spinal cord injury complications. Key publications include “Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury in the United States, 1993-2012” (JAMA, 2015), “Family History and Heritability of Rotator Cuff Tears” (J Shoulder Elbow Surg, 2026), and “Quantitative assessments of ultrasound-based rotator cuff muscle quality” (PM&R, 2026). He received the 2016 Young Academician Award from the Association of Academic Physiatrists and serves as Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Archives of ISPRM.