David S. Tulsky, Ph.D., Director of the Center for Health Assessment Research and Translation
Dr. Tulsky is the Director of the Center for Health Assessment Research and Translation (CHART) and has academic appointments as a Professor in the Departments of Physical Therapy, Psychological & Brain Sciences, and Education at the University of Delaware. He has nearly 30 years of experience developing tests and measurement instruments and is internationally recognized as a leader in the development of outcomes measurement tools, cognitive tests, and patient reported outcomes measurement systems. Over the past 18 years, he has focused on optimizing measures for use in rehabilitation populations.
Before coming to Delaware, he was Professor and Director of Research in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Michigan Medical School. Prior to his work at Michigan, Dr. Tulsky was the Vice President of Outcomes & Assessment Research and the Director of Spinal Cord Injury Research at the Kessler Foundation. He also served as the Principal Investigator and Director of the Northern New Jersey SCI System and as a Co-Investigator on the Northern New Jersey TBI System. During this time, he also held a joint appointment at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey/New Jersey Medical School as an Associate Professor in the Department of PM&R. Earlier in his career, Dr. Tulsky worked at the Psychological Corporation (now Pearson Assessments) and was the Director of the Wechsler Measurement team and led revisions of the Wechsler Intelligence Scales.
Dr. Tulsky has expertise in the development and validation of patient reported outcomes (PRO) and neuropsychological assessments. He has been instrumental in the development and validation of the Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) in rehabilitation populations. Notably, Dr. Tulsky has led large, collaborative grants to optimize several PROMIS and Neuro-QOL tools for Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) populations. Dr. Tulsky’s research has identified measurement gaps that are unique for these populations and has created new assessment tools to assess condition-specific QOL, especially for patients with spinal cord injury (SCI) or traumatic brain injury (TBI). Dr. Tulsky led the development and initial evaluation of the Spinal Cord Injury – Quality of Life (SCI-QOL), Spinal Cord Injury – Functional Index (SCI-FI), and Traumatic Brain Injury – Quality of Life (TBI-QOL) measurement systems. Dr. Tulsky is currently developing new PRO measures for individuals who have sustained severe musculoskeletal trauma.
A prominent theme throughout Dr. Tulsky’s research portfolio has been the use of advanced psychometric techniques to develop and validate clinically relevant scales. To this end, Dr. Tulsky has worked closely on developing normative information, base rate information, advanced factor analytic techniques, and conventional validation efforts, striving to present the methods and results to clinicians and researchers in a way that is digestible, clinically meaningful, and actionable. Dr. Tulsky has introduced new scales and scores, utilizing base rate data, which have helped clinicians understand specific areas of clinical strengths and weaknesses.
Dr. Tulsky is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist: State of Illinois; a (certified) member of the American Psychological Association, Division 22: Rehabilitation Psychology, Division 38: Health Psychology, and Division 40: Neuropsychology; and a member of the International Neuropsychological Society, International Society of Quality of Life, American Association of Spinal Cord Injury Psychologists and Social Workers, and the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine.
Dr. Tulsky obtained his B.S. in Psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana, his M.A. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology with a Secondary Specialty in Psychometrics, Research Methods, and Statistics from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Further, he completed a Pre-Doctoral Psychology Internship at Mercy Hospital and Medical Center in Behavioral Health Outpatient Service in San Diego, CA. He also completed a Post-Doctoral Psychology Research Fellowship in Health Psychology at the Rush-Presbyterian St. Luke’s Medical Center in Chicago, IL.
His research interests include:
- the assessment of medical outcomes/patient reported outcomes/quality of life in individuals with spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury, other disabilities and/or chronic disease
- Assessment of cognitive functioning
- Computerized adaptive testing (CAT), psychometric applications, and test development
- Psychological adjustment to traumatic injury and chronic illness
- Using outcomes measures in clinical practice and integration of outcome measures into electronic medical records
- Use of virtual reality technology in the assessment of cognitive ability and functional skills
Selected Publications
Tulsky, D.S., Kisala, P.A., Charlifue, S., Heinemann, A., Kalpakjian, C., Victorson, D., Fyffe, D., Tate, D., Forchheimer, M., & Cella, D. (2013). Validation of the SCI-QOL and SCI-FI measurement systems for persons with spinal cord injury. Topics in Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation, 19(S1), 33.
Tulsky, D.S., Salsman, J.M., Nowinski, C., & Gershon, R. (2012). The NIH Toolbox for the Assessment of Neurological and Behavioral Function. Quality of Life Research, 20, 2.
Weintraub, S. Dikmen, S.S., Heaton, R.K., Tulsky, D.S., Zelazo, P.D., Bauer, P.J., Carlozzi, N.E., Slotkin, J., Blitz, D., Wallner-Allen, K., Fox, N.A., Beaumont, J.L., Mungas, D., Richler, J., Anderson, J.E., Manly, J.J., Havlik, R., Edwards, E., King, J., Conway, K., Moy, C., Witt, E., Freund, L., Wagster, M.V., & Gershon, R. (2012). The NIH Toolbox for the Assessment of Neurological and Behavioral Function (NIH Toolbox): Validity of the Cognitive Function Battery in Adults. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 18(S1), 71.
Heaton, R.K., Tulsky, D.S., Weintraub, S., Dikmen, S.S., Zelazo, P.D., Beaumont, J.L., Slotkin, J., Edwards, E., King, J.W., Conway, K., Moy, C., Witt, E., Freund, L., Wagster, M.V., & Gershon, R. (2012). The NIH Toolbox for the Assessment of Neurological and Behavioral Function (NIH Toolbox): Validity of Composite Scores for the Cognitive Function Battery in Adults. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 18(S1), 71.
Carlozzi, N.E., Tulsky, D.S., Garcia, S., Gray, D., Hahn, E., Hammel, J., Hollingsworth, H., Jerousek, S., Kisala, P., Lai, J.S., Magasi, S., & Heinemann, A. (2012). Developing patient reported outcome measures of environmental factors affecting participation in medical rehabilitation. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 18(S1), 67.
Tulsky, D.S., Carlozzi, N., Gershon, R., & Cella, D. (2012). An Overview of the NIH Toolbox, PROMIS, and Neuro-QOL Initiatives. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 18(S1), 199.
Tulsky, D.S., Kisala, P.A., Jette, A., Slavin, M.D., & Ni, P. (2012). Determining the Factor Structure of the Spinal Cord Injury Computer Adapted Test. Topics in Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation, 18(S1), 200.
Tulsky, D., Kisala, P.A., Carlozzi, N., Lai, J.S., & Heinemann, A.W. (2012). Development of an item bank measuring economic and financial quality of life for individuals with disabilities. Quality of Life Research, 21, 52.
Tulsky, D., Kisala, P.A., Jette, A., Slavin, M.D., & Ni, P. (2012). Developing 5 item banks to measure patient-reported physical functioning as part of the Spinal Cord Injury Functional Index (SCI-FI) measurement system. Quality of Life Research, 21, 83.
Carlozzi, N., Tulsky, D., Kurkowski, R., Browne, K., Wortman, K., Gershon, R. (2010). The NIH Toolbox Project: The development of a measure of working memory. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 16(S1), 46-47.
Tulsky, D.S., Carlozzi, N.E., Kurkowski, R., Browne, K., Wortman, K., Gershon, R. (2010). The NIH Toolbox Project: The development of a measure of processing speed. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 16(S1), 47.
Victorson, D., Tulsky, D., Kisala, P., Cella, D. (2010). Targeted Assessment for Individuals with Spinal Cord Injury: Extending the Neuro-QOL and PROMIS Measurement Systems. Quality of Life Research, 19, 97.
Tulsky, D.S., Jette, A., Heinemann, A., Tate, D., Victorson, D., & Cella, D. (2010). Development of targeted patient reported outcome item banks for spinal cord injury: The SCI-CAT/SCI-QOL Measurement System. Quality of Life Research, 19, 99.
Haley, S.R., & Tulsky, D.S. (2010). Empirical approaches for linking child and adult measures. Quality of Life Research, 19, 10.
Carlozzi, N., McGowan, H., & Tulsky, D.S. (2010). Extending Neuro-QOL to Huntington’s Disease: The development of the HD-HRQOL. Quality of Life Research, 19, 98.
Tulsky, D.S., Dikmen, S., Heaton, R., Weintraub, S., Havlik, R., & Gershon, R. (2009). The NIH Toolbox for the assessment of neurological and behavioral functioning: Development of standardized measures in NIH-Funded research. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 15(S1), 1.
Tulsky, D.S., Bauer, P., Carlozzi, N., Borosh, B., Weintraub, S., Baron, I., & Chelune, G. (2009). NIH Toolbox for the assessment of neurological and behavioral functioning: Implications for the clinical neuropsychologist. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 15(S1), 1.
Carlozzi, N.E., Tulsky, D.S., Kurkowski, R., Browne, K., Wortman, K., & Gershon, R. (2009). The development of processing speed and working memory tasks: the NIH Toolbox Project. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 24, 540.