Monica Rho, MD

About Me

Monica Rho, MD, is Chief of Musculoskeletal Medicine at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab. She is also Director of Residency Training and Director of Women’s Sports Medicine for the organization. Additionally, she is a Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

Currently, she serves as the Team Physician for the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team. She travelled with them to the 2019 World Cup in France where the team won its fourth title, a new record. She was also with them at the 2024 Paris Olympics where they won the gold medal and the 2021 Tokyo Olympics where they won the bronze medal. She is also a member of the U.S. Soccer Medical Advisory Board. Previously, she served as the Team Physician for the U.S. Men’s Paralympic Soccer Team and represented the United States as part of the medical team at the 2016 Paralympics Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Her research interests include neuromuscular control of the hip in the setting of femoroacetabular impingement; use of musculoskeletal ultrasound in improving medical education, and injury epidemiology and prevention in Paralympic athletes.

Her approach to care is guided by patients’ personal goals in returning to their best functional ability. As an extension of her physical examination of the patient, she can also use ultrasound in the assessment of the dynamic musculoskeletal system. Although Dr. Rho seeks to offer patients the least invasive methods of treatment, she is also trained in lumbar spine injections, peripheral joint injections and soft tissue injections of the musculoskeletal system.

In addition, Dr. Rho frequently sees patients from Shirley Ryan AbilityLab’s Performing Arts Medicine program, previously serving as company physician for the Joffrey Ballet and Blue Man Group.

Dr. Rho earned her BA in Psychology from Northwestern University and her MD from Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. She completed her internship at Northwestern University’s McGaw Medical Center in Evanston, Ill., her residency in PM&R at Northwestern University’s McGaw Medical Center at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (now Shirley Ryan AbilityLab), and went on to do a fellowship in Sports Medicine and Interventional Spine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Mo. She is board certified in both Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine.

A natural teacher and mentor, Dr. Rho has been honored repeatedly for both: Outstanding Teacher of the Year, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (2012, 2014); Mentor of the Year, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (2013, 2015, 2016); Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Best Teachers at Feinberg Award (2015); and Feinberg Academy of Medical Educators Outstanding Teacher Award (2016). In 2019, she was named to Crain's Chicago Business' 40 Under 40. In 2020, she was named the PASSOR Legacy Award winner by the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.