Heakyung Kim, M.D.

Biography

Heakyung Kim, M.D., is Professor and Chair of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and the Kimberly-Clark Distinguished Chair in Mobility Research at UT Southwestern Medical Center. She specializes in pediatric rehabilitation medicine, brain injury, cerebral palsy, and botulinum toxin injections for spasticity and drooling management.

Dr. Kim earned her medical degree at Ewha Womans University College of Medicine in Seoul, South Korea. She completed both her residency in rehabilitation and fellowship in neuroscience in rehabilitation medicine at Yonsei University Health System in Seoul. She later completed a combined residency in pediatrics and physical medicine and rehabilitation at Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences (RBHS) and Rutgers New Jersey Medical School.

Certified by the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in physiatry with subspecialties in pediatric rehabilitation medicine and brain injury medicine, she joined the UT Southwestern faculty in 2022.

Prior to joining UT Southwestern, Dr. Kim served as Vice Chair and A. David Gurewitsch Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine at Columbia University; Director of Pediatric Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital; and Chief of the Physiatry Department at Blythedale Children’s Hospital. She was the founding Director of the Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine Fellowship Program at Columbia and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. She also served as Associate Director of Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine in the Weinberg Family Cerebral Palsy Center at Columbia University.

Dr. Kim also previously worked at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where she was Assistant Chief for the Division of Child Development, Rehabilitation and Metabolic Disease and Medical Director of Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine and the Cerebral Palsy Program.

She is nationally and internationally regarded as an expert in pediatric rehabilitation medicine and serves on the World Health Organization’s committee for rehabilitation interventions for people with cerebral palsy. In addition, she is the Medical Director and Leader of the Rehabilitation Mission for the Children of China Pediatrics Foundation. Her research interests include cerebral palsy, especially spasticity and drooling management with botulinum toxin; robotic therapy; exercise for spastic muscles in children with cerebral palsy; and lifespan care for people with cerebral palsy, including sexuality.

Dr. Kim is Associate Editor at Large and Guest Editor of Special Cerebral Palsy Issues for Journal of Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine and serves on the editorial board of Journal of Noninvasive Mechanical Ventilation.

A prolific and renowned presenter and author, Dr. Kim has published widely across peer-reviewed journals related to her areas of clinical interest. Her recent publications include contributions to Braddom's Rehabilitation Care: A Clinical Handbook and Pediatric Musculoskeletal Medicine.

Dr. Kim has been recognized as one of America’s Top Physicians since 2003. She is also a New York Times Super Doctor, named by Castle Connolly as among the Exceptional Women in Medicine, and listed by American Registry as the Best of the Best. She has received four Teacher of the Year awards.