Ashlee M. Jaffe, MD, MEd, FAAPMR

Ashlee M. Jaffe, MD, MEd, FAAPMR, is board certified in Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and is an attending physician in the Center for Rehabilitation at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She specializes in caring for children who have torticollis, cerebral palsy and brain injury or who need rehabilitation medicine services, such as bracing, or tone and spasticity management including botulinum toxin and phenol injections. She is involved in projects to drive quality improvement in patient care and improve patient safety both in the division and hospital wide. She also serves as the director of education for CHOP’s Division of Rehabilitation Medicine.

Dr. Jaffe chose this specialty because it allowed her to combine two of her passions. “I have always had a passion for working with children with disabilities and have a background in bioengineering. When I learned that there was a medical specialty where I could work with kids and use my knowledge of engineering to help those with disabilities, I was intrigued,” she says. “As I gained exposure to rehab medicine, I loved how physiatrists focused on function and the entire patient rather than a single system.”

She particularly enjoys working with younger patients. “I love working with my infant to five-year-old patients because I feel like I can impact the trajectory of their entire life if I help with treatments at a young age,” she says.

She noted that the nature of rehabilitative medicine requires thinking about each child as an individual and working with their unique strengths and challenges. “I see a lot of children with cerebral palsy (CP), and this heterogeneous group really challenges me to think at each visit how I can help every child I meet. I think it is a privilege to be able to share a new diagnosis of CP with a family and help them understand the functional potential of their child,” she says. “I also really enjoy seeing adolescents with conversion disorder, since rehab can be the one thing that finally helps these patients get better!” she adds.

Regardless of a patient’s age or medical need, Dr. Jaffe strives to ensure each patient and their families leaves CHOP with a sense that they and their concerns are taken seriously. “I want my patients to feel like they were seen in a timely manner, felt listened to, had all their questions answered, and that their goals for their child were incorporated into the treatment plan and recommendations,” she says. “I also want families to feel like they can reach me between visits to address changes in their child's condition or concerns that arise.”

Education and experience

Dr. Jaffe earned her medical degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine in Chicago. She advanced her training by completing an internship in pediatrics at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children and a residency in rehabilitation medicine at Thomas Jefferson University, both in Philadelphia.  She also completed a fellowship in pediatric rehabilitation at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. Dr. Jaffe also holds a Master of Education in curriculum and instruction and a Master’s Certificate in clinical and translational research, both from the University of Cincinnati.

In addition to her clinical work, Dr. Jaffe is an assistant professor of clinical pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania.

Research

Dr. Jaffe’s interest in providing quality care extends to her non-clinical work. In her administrative roles, she divides time working on projects aimed at quality improvement and patient safety. “I'm excited about using quality improvement initiatives to really look at our data to ensure our patients are getting the best and evidence-based care,” she says. As part of that, she is working on several initiatives within the division, including efforts to improve documentation and adherence to evidence-based guidelines for care.

Dr. Jaffe is also passionate about education and is working to create what she hopes will eventually be a new fellowship in pediatric rehabilitation medicine at CHOP.

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