Thursday, April 18, 2024
4/18/2024
Stroke often involves considerable sensorimotor impairments with complex pathological changes: impairments involve multiple muscle groups, multiple joints, and thus many variables are involved. These impairments negatively affect mobility and manipulation in a large population of patients. Due to this complexity, it is infeasible to assess complicated impairment accurately through current clinical examinations. Furthermore, the vast majority of therapies focus on inclinic one-on-one treatments with therapists, and there is a need for combining technology-enabled home therapies and accurate impairment assessments to augment clinic-based treatment. The Mission of this RERC is to champion innovative technologies/approaches for assessmentbased rehabilitation with combined hospital-home rehabilitation that will improve therapeutic outcomes among individuals with neurologic disorders and older adults with disabilities. This RERC will develop and test devices and techniques that will increase the volume and effectiveness of impairment-specific therapies. Many rehabilitation technologies including rehabilitation robots have been developed and applied to rehabilitation successfully. However, there is a lack of combined accurate assessment and treatment protocols and devices that evaluate and treat specific impairments. The RERC objectives are to assess closely related impairments post-stroke or associated with older adults with high fall risks, including sensorimotor impairments across multi-joints, impaired balance and gait post-stroke and reduced balance and increased risk of falls associated with aging. The outcomes will be accurate assessments of mobility and manipulation impairments and improvements following combined hospital and home rehabilitation, ranging from muscles to joint, from single to multiple joints, from hand to arm, and from balance control to stepping. Novel products will be developed, including assessment tools, wearable rehabilitation robots, multi-joint arm/hand robots, and sliding-stepping robots.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).
