About Karen Stanek

Karen Stanek M.D., Ph.D. has always loved physiology and medicine. I completed my PH.D. in exercise physiology in 1978 and worked in cardiovascular research for 5 years. I completed medical school from the University of Mississippi in 1988 and completed my residency training in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation training in June of 1992 from the University of Colorado. The year after residency I completed a one-month specialized study in traumatic brain injury and completed a course in Business Administration and Management in Medicine at Harvard University.

I moved to Spokane in 1993, and served as Medical Director of Deaconess Rehabilitation Institute from August of 1993 until September of 1994. During this year I served on the Integration Committee, which was instrumental in merging the rehabilitation centers from Sacred Heart Medical Center and Deaconess Rehabilitation to form St. Luke’s Rehabilitation Institute. I served as in-patient medical director of the new institute from September of 1994 until Nov of 1995. I worked as medical advisor to the traumatic brain injury unit at St. Luke’s until 2015. I also served on the Spokane Chapter of the BIAW Board for many years.

In 1996 I started my private practice called Northwest Medical Rehabilitation. Over the next several years I was honored as one of the outstanding doctors in Spokane several times. I retired from general Physiatry in the fall of 2022. I now serve as Medical Director of the Spokane Hyperbaric Center and work at my New Life Networks Regenerative Medicine stem cell clinic. I like to share new ideas with my patients and colleagues. I believe that Regenerative medicine including Hyperbarics and stem cells have an important role in the future of medicine.