Susan Keeshin, MD

About Me

Susan Keeshin, MD, is an Attending Physician and the Medical Director of the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab DayRehab program. She is board-certified in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Additionally, she holds an academic appointment as an assistant professor at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

As Medical Director of DayRehab (a program that is unique to Shirley Ryan AbilityLab), Dr. Keeshin uses an interdisciplinary, collaborative approach as she leads physicians and other clinical team members to maximize patient functional outcomes and quality of life. Geared toward helping individuals with severe, complex conditions — including stroke, spinal cord injury and traumatic brain injury — DayRehab offers an intensive model of rehabilitation in an outpatient setting. Patients benefit from 3-6 hours of therapy per day, 3-5 days per week, and engage in some combination of physical, occupational and speech therapy, psychology, vocational counseling, nursing and physician support. They also participate in individual and group treatment sessions and community outings.

Over more than two decades as Attending Physician, Dr. Keeshin has gained extensive experience leading in inpatient and subacute settings, and in consultations at Northwestern Medicine. She cares for patients with a variety of diagnoses, including traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, stroke, multiple sclerosis, and Parkinson's disease, and musculoskeletal conditions like back and joint pain. She treats Shirley Ryan AbilityLab outpatients at the Northbrook Outpatient Center, and day rehabilitation patients at the Glenview Pediatric & DayRehab Center®.

Dr. Keeshin has been named multiple times to "Top Doctors" and "Best Doctors" lists, and has lectured and presented at conferences and meetings across the United States. She has been involved in a variety of research initiatives, including the Spinal Cord Injury Model System grant, the Nexstim stroke study focusing on neuromodulation for stroke recovery, and a grant from the American Brain Tumor Association investigating outcomes of brain tumor patients in an outpatient rehabilitation setting.

Dr. Keeshin earned her Doctor of Medicine from the Chicago Medical School, and completed her residency through the McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University/Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (now Shirley Ryan AbilityLab).