Chronic health conditions are among the leading causes of death and disability in the United States; rehabilitation interventions largely neglect the psychosocial and behavioral factors that influence poor physical activity and disability. Evidence supports the use of behavior-based interventions to produce long-lasting physical activity changes among older adults with complex health conditions, yet these are not readily used within rehabilitation practice.

Dr. Miller, a PhD trained doctor of physical therapy (DPT), strives to develop work that improves the health, disability, and quality of life of older adults. Prior to research training, he practiced clinically at California Pacific Medical Center in acute care, acute rehabilitation, skilled nursing facility, and outpatient settings. He gained a practical understanding of how non-physical factors influence rehabilitation outcomes through his experiences working with patients who had complex neurologic injuries like traumatic brain injury, stroke, and spinal cord injury. These experiences motivated him to pursue rehabilitation research training at the University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus.

Dr. Miller's research highlights the significance of psychosocial factors on physical activity and disability among older adults. These studies form a foundation of knowledge that are used to develop, test, and implement behavior-based interventions for older adults with lower-limb amputation, total knee arthroplasty, and cognitive impairment. In addition to this work, he lead and published findings of an evaluation of the UCSF Physical Therapy Faculty Practice telehealth implementation during the COVID-19 pandemic. To date, this is Dr. Miller's highest impact publication and was prominently featured in the Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Journal, the journal of the American Physical Therapy Association, COVID-19 collection.