February 10, 2009 – The National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research has awarded a five year, $4.75 million grant to USC and Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center to establish the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center for Technologies for Successful Aging with Disability.
The new Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center, or RERC, will use the yearly grant award of $950,000 to study the challenges of growing older with disabilities and the positive effects that new technologies can have on independence, health and quality of life.
It is estimated that 41% of senior citizens are living with a disability, according to the 2006 American Community Survey of Disability Status Report. For the first time in history, many individuals with significant disabilities, like their non-disabled counterparts before them, are surviving long enough to experience the rewards and challenges of ‘aging’.
“Whether an individual ages with a preexisting disability, such as spinal cord injury or cerebral palsy, or develops a new disability with age, such as osteoarthritis or Parkinson’s disease, his or her aging process tends to progress much more rapidly than that of a non-disabled peer,” says Carolee Winstein, professor of biokinesiology and physical therapy and the new center’s director. According to Winstein, a disability will affect a person’s independence and determine how active they can be in life. Through research, the team hopes to develop technology to reduce stress and decelerate this aging process.
The center, spearheaded by USC, brings together clinicians, researchers, policy experts, and innovators from various sectors of the university: School of Dentistry’s Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy and Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, Davis School of Gerontology, Viterbi School of Engineering, Rossier School of Education, Keck School of Medicine, Stevens Institute for Innovation, Information Science Institute and the Institute for Creative Technologies.
The center’s four projects each focus on optimizing participation through technology.
Project 1, “Dexterous Manipulation with the Fingertips,” seeks to develop a reliable method to assess hand function and dexterity as well as extend the technology to enjoyable immersive activities or games that help patients analyze and improve hand and finger movement. Francisco Valero-Cuevas, associate professor of biomedical engineering and biokinesiology, will lead the project.
Project 2, “Virtual Reality and Gaming for Home-Based Motor Assessment & Training,” aims to integrate with the other three projects and to develop fun, low-cost virtual games that people with a variety of functional impairments could use at home to retain or increase physical function and movement, which can directly influence the level of independent living. Albert Rizzo, research scientist with the Institute for Creative Technologies, will lead the project.
Project 3, “Optimizing Mobility in the Home and Community for Manual Wheelchair Users,” will examine methods, including virtual reality, for teaching healthy movement techniques that minimize and prevent shoulder damage, which can occur as wheelchair-bound patients propel themselves or move themselves in and out of the wheelchair. The principal investigators are Philip Requejo, adjunct assistant professor of kinesiology, and Sara Mulroy, adjunct assistant professor of biokinesiology and physical therapy.
Project 4, “Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation for Mobility,” will examine the use of wireless microstimulators implanted in muscles to automatically shift an immobile patient’s weight and thus avoid pressure ulcers. Lucinda Baker, associate professor of biokinesiology and physical therapy, will lead the project.
Rancho Los Amigos, a world-renowned rehabilitation hospital, will house Projects 3 and 4 as well as provide patient evaluation for Projects 1 and 2. “The center is diverse and patient-centered, giving it the power to bring life-changing technologies to market and help many future patients,” said Winstein, the center director. “We’re a very cohesive group that’s geared for success,” said Requejo, RERC co-director and director of the Rehabilitation Engineering Program at Rancho Los Amigos.
The team of researchers is optimistic about the impact the RERC will have on future patients who are aging with and into disability. The disability groups who are target beneficiaries of the new program include adults with Cerebral Palsy, chronic spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury, stroke, Parkinson’s disease, osteoarthritis affecting the hands and fingers, and individuals aging who use a manual wheelchair for mobility. “USC is particularly good at harnessing multidisciplinary efforts,” said Winstein. “Everyone is learning from each other, and our research and development is anchored with patients and consumers. We form a tremendous team.”
For more information on the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center for Technologies for Successful Aging with Disability, visit the website http://www.isi.edu/research/rerc.