Winter 2016

 

 
Henry Sisun ’71 sees possibilities.

He was only 24 years old when he purchased his first pharmacy on the South Side of Providence; within a few years, he had begun working with a local neurosurgeon to use neurostimulators as an alternative to narcotics for the treatment of chronic pain—and quickly recognized there was a significant future in pharmacy beyond the counter.

“After nine years as a pharmacist, I saw what wasn’t working about drug therapy,” he says. “I felt there was an aspect of physical therapy that could be merged with pharmacy to help people improve their health.” He entered the master’s in physical therapy program at Boston University, where his neurophysiology professor connected him with a patent attorney on two drug delivery and electrode technologies he helped develop while still a student. By the time he graduated, he was also helming the start-up Eleco-Med, developing a computerized closed loop drug delivery prototype that further impressed upon him the collaborative future of healthcare.

“After nine years as a pharmacist, I saw what wasn’t working about drug therapy. I felt there was an aspect of physical therapy that could be merged with pharmacy to help people improve their health.”

Now, as owner and operator of Rhode Island Rehabilitation Institute and Back On Track Physical Therapy, Sisun continues to pioneer new frontiers in physical therapy. “Helping our therapists grow and develop their talents to make a positive difference in people’s lives by filling the void of what is not working or can be done better is what motivates me.”

His work continues to inspire him to see possibility, not only in his field and for his patients, but for URI students.

“Maybe it starts in a chemistry department with a biodegradable polymer, or a chemical engineering student that takes on a cancer research project with a pharmacy student, and it comes together in an incubator setting with a business or finance student,” says Sisun. “When you put creative students together with the right mentorship and academic oversight, it’s an exciting place to be.”

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