Leighton Chan

Leighton Chan is an American medical researcher and rehabilitation physician. He is Chief of the Rehabilitation Medicine Department at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center.
Career.
Chan received his B.A. degree from Dartmouth College, in Hanover, New Hampshire, with a major in political science. He graduated from the UCLA School of Medicine in 1990. He then completed postgraduate training in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Washington. During his training, he also obtained a Master of Science degree in Rehabilitation Science. Subsequently, he completed a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar Fellowship, earned a Master of Public Health degree in Health Services at the University of Washington School of Public Health, and was a Congressional Fellow for Jim McDermott (Washington).
From 1994 to 2006, Chan was on the faculty of the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine of the University of Washington (UW). At the UW, he was Medical Director of UWMC's outpatient program, including clinics in Back Pain, EMG and Pulmonary Rehabilitation. He also spent several years as a consultant to a UWMC Sub-Acute Rehabilitation facility. Chan was also deeply involved in training as a member of the UW Residency Training and Admissions Committees, and as the Chair of the Annual UW PM&R Review Course.
He is board certified in physical medicine and rehabilitation and in electrodiagnostic medicine. His research interests include health services research, quality of care given to Medicare beneficiaries, and Medicare payment policy issues. His research has received financial support in excess of $45 million. He has published more than 125 peer reviewed articles, including 10 in "The New England Journal of Medicine", "JAMA", and "The Lancet".
Awards.
Chan’s awards include the Young Academician Award from the Association of Academic Physiatrists, two outstanding teacher awards from the University of Washington School of Medicine, and a Presidential Citation Award for excellence in research by the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. In 2007, he was one of the youngest individuals elected to the National Academy of Medicine.
He has also received three NIH Director’s Awards and one NIH Clinical Center Director's Award for his work in Bethesda.