APT Center's Dr. Kristi Henzel receives $1.19 million Department of Veterans Affairs Rehabilitation Research, Development, and Translation (RRDT) Merit Review Award!
Dr. M. Kristi Henzel, APTC Principal Investigator, Assistant Chief for the SCI/D service at the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center’s (LSCVAMC), and Associate Professor of PM&R at Case Western Reserve University, secured a four-year, $1,192,423 Department of Veterans Affairs Rehabilitation Research, Development, and Translation Merit Review Award for her project entitled “Toward understanding mechanisms of inadvertent lower extremity displacements from wheelchair footplates in Veterans with SCI/D: Multi-modal evaluation of leg movements during power wheelchair use.”
For individuals with SCI/D, wheelchairs (WC) are critical to independence and quality of life. However, when users’ feet become mispositioned or dislodged from the WC footplates, even optimally configured WCs can be dangerous during daily operation by those who cannot feel, see, or easily reposition their lower limbs. This project uses a Team Science approach to build upon our previous work and uses “FootSafe”, a VA-patented prototype assistive technology (AT) that measures pressure and position of the foot on the footplate.
The study team will use a 3-pronged approach to understand (1) qualitative Veteran and caregiver perspectives on limb displacements during power wheelchair (PWC) use, (2) quantitative measurement of lower limb motion during indoor and outdoor PWC mobility using 3-D motion capture and FootSafe, and (3) determine whether machine learning anomaly detection algorithms trained using limb movement data can predict limb displacements in advance of their occurrence.
Dr. Henzel directs the Wheelchair Injury Reduction Research Lab (WhIRRL) which includes clinicians, engineers, and Veteran Consumer Advocates with SCI in achieving the goals of this project.
Meet the WhIRRL Team!
Dr. Kath Bogie is a Rehabilitation Research, Development, and Translation Broad Portfolio Research Career Scientist and Professor in the Depts. of Orthopaedics and Biomedical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Bogie is a biomedical engineer with a background in translational research in tissue health, wound management and wheelchair seating, and success in translating interventions from research into clinical applications. Dr. Bogie is co-Principal Investigator on this grant and a Co-Inventor of the FootSafe technology along with Dr. Henzel.
Dr. Steve Majerus is an APTC Investigator and Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University with expertise in integrated circuit design, wireless telemetry circuitry and wearable electronics for long-term data collection in clinical settings, as well as microsystem assembly and packaging. Dr. Majerus is a consultant on this project as well as Co-Inventor of FootSafe.
Dr. Kevin S. Xu is an electrical engineer and computer scientist appointed as an Assistant Professor in the Case Western Reserve University Department of Computer and Data Sciences. Dr. Xu’s expertise is in machine learning and network science and builds data-driven models of complex systems to allow understanding of how they behave and may change in the future. Dr. Xu leads development and analysis of machine learning algorithms for detecting foot displacements from the wheelchair footplates.
Dr. Sandra Hnat is an APTC Investigator and Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University with expertise in biomechanics and the use of motion capture technology. Dr. Hnat leads the digital motion capture team to detect lower limb movements during power wheelchair mobility in the lab and community.
Dr. Tamara Vos-Draper is a rehabilitation scientist and Mixed Methods Specialist with the Rehabilitation & Engineering Center for Optimizing Veteran Engagement & Reintegration (RECOVER) Center at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center. Dr. Vos-Draper has a deep clinical background in the areas of spinal cord injury and disorders, wheelchair seating and mobility, and assistive technology. She utilizes qualitative research techniques to understand and facilitate self-management of secondary conditions by wheelchair users.
Mr. Steven Mitchell is a Clinical Specialist in Seating/Wheeled Mobility and Assistive Technology with the SCI/D service at the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center. His clinical practice includes care for Veterans with SCI, Multiple Sclerosis and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and he is well known for creating innovating complex rehab seating solutions to meet the mobility needs of his clients. He was the first on our team to recognize the injuries occurring after the patient’s foot is mispositioned on the power wheelchair footplate and is a Co-Inventor of the FootSafe technology.
Mr. Sean Ferry is a quality analyst and Veteran with C5 complete spinal cord injury who is Vice-President of the Keystone Chapter of the Paralyzed Veterans of America and is a Consumer Advocate on the WhIRRL team and multiple other research studies.
Mr. Robert Morris is a retired ceramics engineer and Veteran with C5 complete spinal cord injury who is Treasurer of the Buckeye Chapter of the Paralyzed Veterans of America and Consumer Advocate on the WhIRRL team.
Congratulations to Dr. Henzel and her team!
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