Research News - October 2007

The paper for the UCI research project has been submitted for editorial approval for publication. It could be a couple months before we find out if it will be accepted by the first journal. Keep checking back as this will be the first place we post about its status.

Eric Harness and Chris Corpuz went to the North American Spinal Cord Injury Conference and Disability Expo in Orlando, FL Aug 26-29. There they met with healthcare providers and SCI individuals interested in our program.

Eric Harness will be in Boston, MA on Oct 4 to meet with Wei-Lee Liao, MD and tour Spaulding Rehabilitation. While there he will be giving a presentation to some of the staff about our program. He will also be touring the Lokomat program Dr. Liao is involved in. From Boston, Eric will be traveling to Washington DC for the American College of Rehabilitation Medicine and the American Society for Neurorehabilitation Annual Educational Conference where he will be speaking on Oct 6. The session he will be speaking at is titled “Update on Activity-based Therapy and Locomotor Training” and will run from 2-4pm.

Research News- March 2007

Our research project with UC Irvine has been completed. We are currently crunching the data and beginning to write up the study. We hope to have the write up completed and submitted for publication by June. We had a total of 21 Project Walk participants and 9 control subjects. We would like to thank them all for their participation in this project.

Eric Harness and John Walters will be going to the National Spinal Cord Injury Association conference in Boston from the 13th to the 17th. They will be manning a booth in the exhibit hall to showcase our program to healthcare providers, and will be handing out information packets and answering questions.

Research News - Jan/Feb 2006

Our anticipated research project with the University of California Irvine has begun. Clients are currently visiting UCI for the first round of testing and will be scheduled for Project Walk testing in the next few weeks. The following is a brief summary of what will be measured:

The study with UCI will be to test the hypothesis that intense exercise will improve motor system function more than the control (no exercise, to be evaluated in a separate, non-Project Walk group). The primary endpoint measurement will be the ASIA scale. Secondary endpoints will include assessing eccentric leg press force, sitting balance, TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation) measurements, fMRI (Functional MRI) of brain activation and anatomical measurements of spinal cord diameter.

These endpoints will be measured in two groups.  The first group of assessments will be performed twice, at U.C. Irvine, in all patients:  once at study baseline and a second time 6 months later.  These assessments are (1) motor behavior; (2) human brain mapping with fMRI scanning while patients attempt to move the right foot at 0.25 Hz; and (3) transcranial magnetic stimulation, which when placed over the leg motor area of the brain evokes a tiny muscle twitch in the leg muscles, the speed and magnitude of this evoked response are recorded.

The second group of assessments will be performed every three weeks.  For patients in the exercise group, these assessments will be performed at Project Walk.  These assessments are leg strength, leg range of motion, and body sway.  This will require participants to arrive at Project Walk 30 minutes before their scheduled exercise session once every three weeks.

Research News - October 2005

On September 28, 2005 , Dr. Anthony and Joann Nunnerly PT of the
Burwood Spinal Injury Unit in New Zealand came for a tour of Project Walk. They were on their way to the International Spinal Cord Society annual meeting in Munich, Germany and decided to make a stop over in Carlsbad to see our program. They get a lot of inquiries about Project Walk from their patients and thought it would be a good idea to understand what we do. We were able to exchange ideas/thoughts on SCI recovery and we hope to be able to work with them in the future to bring our program to Christchurch, NZ.

Research News - May 2005

In May 2005, Dr Steven Cramer of the University of California Irvine visited Project Walk® to discuss some of his current and upcoming research projects. He presented an in depth analysis of a project he just completed on the effects of spinal cord injury and brain function. Many of our clients and specialists attended the presentation and found it to be very thought provoking. When he publishes this research we will definitely be featuring an abstract of it here.

I am currently working with Dr. Cramer’s team on a research project geared specifically toward measuring strength and functional gains in our clients here at Project Walk®. We hope to have this ready to go by the end of 2005 or the first months of 2006.

Eric Harness