#1 for 32
Consecutive Years
Providing exceptional care for more stroke, spinal cord injury and traumatic brain injury patients than anywhere else in the USA.
How Can We Help?
Patients from around the world choose us for acute rehabilitation. Our hospital is designed to treat the whole patient – physically and mentally. See all the Conditions + Services offerings.
What Sets Us Apart?
Choosing the right rehabilitation partner is vital to achieving your best outcome.
Team of Experts
Integrated team that creates customized plans to fit your needs.
Innovative Spaces
Bright energized therapy spaces and cutting-edge equipment facilitate healing and recovery.
World Class Research
Access to more scientists, evidence-based research and clinical trials than any other hospital.
Proven Outcomes
Our patients exceed national averages for functional improvements across many conditions.
Why Choose Us?
Our new research hospital serves our patients in ways that are unprecedented in medicine.
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We treat more patients for stroke, spinal cord injury and brain injury than any other rehabilitation hospital.
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Our patients report better functional improvements for self-care and mobility than the national average.
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Over 50% of our therapists have advanced certifications beyond their Master’s and PhD’s. We never use therapy assistants.
Patient Stories
At Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, you’ll become part of a thriving medical-research community that will champion and celebrate your successes. We’ll help you achieve your best outcome, faster.
Meeting Milestones After a Traumatic Brain Injury
Patient Story
A Tribute to Work and Recovery
Patient Story
Hoops and Hope Following a Freak Accident
Patient Story
Clinical Trials
Research fuels our passion and informs our patient care. See if you quality for one of our studies.
Accepting Patients
The Intensive Comprehensive Aphasia Program (ICAP): A Randomized Clinical Trial
This study is looking for participants who have had one stroke and were right handed before the stroke.
Accepting Patients
Task paired Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for Working Memory potentiation
The Shirley Ryan AbilityLab is seeking healthy elderly participants to study the effect of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) to investigate memory.
Accepting Patients
Community Outreach Model of Education and Training on Communication: COMET-C
Seeking persons with communication difficulties due to stroke/aphasia, Parkinson’s Disease, cerebral palsy or traumatic brain injury to join a focus group.
Accepting Patients
Tracking neural synergies during gait rehabilitation after stroke
Our lab is seeking healthy individuals to participate in a study in which we are measuring nerve and muscle electrical activity during walking and balance tasks. We want to better understand how the motor control of patients post-stroke changes during rehabilitation.
Accepting Patients
Stimulating neuroplasticity in TBI with acute intermittent hypoxia
We are studying whether briefly reducing oxygen consumption, equivalent to being on top of a mountain, is safe and stimulates neuroplasticity in people who have had a concussion or a mild to moderate traumatic brain injury (TBI).
Latest News
Meet Dr. Ishan Roy — Physician-Scientist Researching Cachexia, a Cancer-Related Muscle Wasting
After officially joining Shirley Ryan AbilityLab as an attending physician-scientist in 2021, Ishan Roy, MD, PhD, practices clinically in the Cancer Rehabilitation Clinic and focuses his research on cachexia (pronounced ca-kex-ia).
view all newsDr. Ishan Roy Featured in National Cancer Institute’s Cancer.gov Article on Cachexia
In a recent article published on the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Cancer.gov website, Shirley Ryan AbilityLab’s Ishan Roy, MD, PhD, attending physician, Cancer Rehabilitation Clinic, and research scientist, was featured prominently as an expert on cachexia — a cancer-related muscle-wasting syndrome.
Recovered quadriplegic from Chicago prepares to swim in San Francisco Bay to raise awareness of paralysis. ‘Doesn’t surprise me a bit,’ says mom.
From the beach where he swims on Lake Michigan, Rob Heitz can point out the green facade of the rehabilitation hospital where he began his recovery journey after being paralyzed from the neck down 19 years ago.