John Lawrence Merritt, MD, FACP, a Physiatrist with RehabMed South

Get to know Physiatrist Dr. John Lawrence Merritt, who serves patients in Tampa, Florida.

Recognized as a board-certified physiatrist and an active researcher, teacher, and medical expert witness, Dr. Merritt is the President of RehabMed South in Tampa, Florida. His primary areas of expertise include life care planning, spinal cord injury, brain injury, and multiple trauma.

With over four decades of clinical and research experience, he has served as a Professor at the Mayo Clinic, the University of California-Irvine, Marquette University, the Medical College of Wisconsin, and the University of South Florida. He has also served as an expert witness in complex, challenging cases with brain injury, spinal cord injury, multi-trauma, and catastrophic injuries.

The doctor’s acclaimed career in medicine began in 1971 when he earned his medical degree from the Medical University of South Carolina’s College of Medicine in Charleston. He then went on to complete his residency in internal medicine at Huntington Memorial Hospital, followed by his residency in physical medicine and rehabilitation at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester.

A Fellow of the American College of Physicians, he is board-certified in brain injury medicine, internal medicine, physical medicine and rehabilitation, and spinal cord medicine by the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, which was established in 1947 as the certifying body for the field of physical medicine and rehabilitation under the American Board of Medical Specialties. He is also a Clinical Professor of Medicine and Neurology at the University of South Florida.

Physical medicine and rehabilitation, also known as physiatry and physiatrics, is a branch of medicine that aims to enhance and restore functional ability and quality of life to those with physical impairments or disabilities. Physiatrists treat a wide variety of medical conditions affecting the brain, spinal cord, nerves, bones, joints, ligaments, muscles, and tendons. 

Elected Best Doctors in America in the Tampa Bay Metro region (2009-2013), Dr. Merritt’s research interests include neuro-regeneration, olfactory mucosa autografts, stem cell therapies, spinal cord injury acute and chronic outcomes; prevention of urinary tract infections; prevention of urinary tract infection in spinal cord injury, pressure ulcer prevention and management (respiratory intervention in quadriplegia); energy expenditure in paraplegia: metabolic changes in chronic SCI; ethics, beginning and end of life issues, palliative care; amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, outcome prediction and management; and life expectancy and outcomes in spinal cord injury. 

Learn more about Dr. John Lawrence Merritt:
Through his findatopdoc profile, https://www.findatopdoc.com/doctor/2544538-John-Merritt-Physiatrist-Physical-Medicine

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Karen Johnson

Karen Johnson is an Associate Content manager for FindaTopDoc and responsible for working with distinguished physicians in documenting their significant accomplishments in their field. Karen is a CPR instructor and is a member of her local theater group.