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LaTina Emerson
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Institute for Biomedical Sciences
Georgia State University
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After earning both a bachelor’s and master’s degree at Georgia State, Dylan McCouch (B.S. ’16, M.I.S. ’18) reached higher to earn a doctor’s degree and now works as a physical therapist in the Atlanta area.
ATLANTA — Dylan McCouch (B.S. ’16, M.I.S. ’18) has come a long way from being a first-generation college student at Georgia State.
The native of Suwanee, Ga., earned his bachelor’s degree in exercise science from Georgia State in 2016, joining two other siblings who earned the same degree, then went on to graduate from the Biomedical Science and Enterprise master’s program in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences in 2018. He kept striving and earned a Doctor of Physical Therapy degree from Mercer University in 2022.
Today, he works as a clinical physical therapist, primarily at Northside Hospital, specializing in outpatient orthopedic, amputee and neurologic rehabilitation. He also holds an inpatient physical therapy position at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta where he works with sub-acute stroke and traumatic brain injury survivors.
“Physical therapy is an incredibly rewarding career — whether it’s watching someone progress back to a sport they love from a significant injury, to teaching someone to walk again after a stroke, to reassuring patients that they’re not alone in their struggle,” McCouch said. “Physical therapy is unique in its impact on someone’s life and the function/abilities we try to return to them.”
McCouch is also skilled in providing aquatic therapy, dry needling and lower extremity amputee rehabilitation with above and below-knee amputees.
“In the future, I plan to become certified in blood flow restriction training and eventually have my own practice,” he said.
After earning his bachelor’s degree, McCouch was interested in exploring studies in biomedical science, law and business, but he wasn’t sure how to academically combine those topics until he came across an email advertising the Biomedical Science and Enterprise master’s program.
He enrolled in the program to get a comprehensive understanding of the biomedical science landscape, advance his knowledge and hone his professional engagement skills with industry leaders. The program was a critical stepping stone in his personal and professional development and prepared him for physical therapy school and beyond, he said.
“In my 18 months in the program, I was exposed to groundbreaking medical research, performed in-depth analyses on biomedical case law, presented to industry professionals on the merits of various novel therapeutics and even developed an understanding of the business side of healthcare,” McCouch said. “When it was time for physical therapy school, I felt well prepared to tackle the extraordinary level of detail and critical thinking skills required to be an effective clinician.”
Through the Biomedical Science and Enterprise master’s program, McCouch had the opportunity to work in research labs with published authors, attend classes on patent law in Georgia State’s College of Law, present on stem cell research innovations to industry leaders and get incredible mentorship, he explained.
“I started out somewhat unsure of what direction I wanted to go with my career,” McCouch said. “By the time I completed the program, I was certain I wanted to be a physical therapist because I found it satisfied my desire to be hands-on with patients, think critically on a regular basis, implement the most up-to-date knowledge into my treatments, and effectively communicate with physicians and other providers — all things that I discovered or learned to do in the Biomedical Science and Enterprise program.”
During the master’s program, McCouch juggled multiple positions. He worked as a graduate research assistant while gaining experience in an outpatient orthopedic physical therapy clinic and as a rehab aide at the Shepherd Center. At the outpatient clinic, he discovered he enjoyed working with people in the rehabilitation setting and loved the day-to-day variety, such as which patients are treated, diagnoses and interventions used, he said.
“I felt physical therapy was the perfect blend of patient care, research application and critical thinking all in a different way, every single day,” McCouch said.
In Mercer University’s physical therapy program, research analysis was a heavy component, and it quickly became one of McCouch’s strengths because he was exposed to it so frequently in his master’s program. The Biomedical Science and Enterprise master’s program also equipped him to be an effective communicator by giving him the opportunity “to work side by side with many intelligent and passionate industry leaders who donated their time to helping the students grow,” he said.
When McCouch isn’t busy helping patients, he spends his free time in the gym. He is a competitive powerlifter and a member of USA Powerlifting.
— Story by LaTina Emerson