Upper Extremity Neurological Motor Recovery for Spinal Cord Injury Patients

With over 50 years' experience providing spinal cord injury (SCI) rehabilitation in Southern California, Sharp Memorial Rehabilitation Services (Sharp Rehab) cares for more patients with SCI than any other rehabilitation provider in San Diego. We offer one of the most comprehensive interdisciplinary continuums of rehabilitation care in the nation, accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF) for both inpatient and outpatient services. Sharp Rehab is first and best in San Diego for providing innovative services to promote healing, minimize disability, and enhance quality of life. We provide SCI rehabilitation for approximately 75 new inpatients and 200 outpatients annually. During their inpatient stay, medical stability and transitioning home as safely as possible is the focus for our SCI patients. The emphasis of outpatient treatment is maximizing patient ability to promote independence. This involves neurological recovery and motor re-education of the patient's upper limb. All patients are treated individually, by highly skilled occupational therapists, to ensure recovery with the assistance of specialized equipment. An aspect of our work that sets us apart is our expertise in the early adoption and implementation of new and emerging adaptive technologies. The Upper Extremity Neurological Motor Recovery for Spinal Cord Injury Patients project involves the purchase of the Armeo-Spring 2.0, an instrumented arm exoskeleton device. It is an assistive technology device that provides active weight relief of the arms, thus allowing weak muscles that are recovering from SCI to meet their maximum movement potential. The device works with virtual reality to give the patient real-time feedback regarding their active movements. The Neilsen Foundation kindly provided a grant for Sharp Rehab's original Armeo-Spring 1.2 in 2009. The device has been in constant use over the last 9 years and is now past its lifespan, having become unreliable and increasingly removed from patient care. We do not have another such specialized piece of equipment and are therefore seeking support for the Armeo-Spring 2.0. Goals of the project include: 1. Train all Sharp Rehab inpatient and outpatient occupational therapists in the use of the Armeo-Spring 2.0, to assist in the neurological recovery of their SCI patients. 2. 100% of clinically appropriate SCI patients will use the Armeo-Spring 2.0 during their inpatient and out-patient therapies. 3. Using a pre- and post-assessment we will measure improvement in active shoulder movement from use of the Armeo-Spring 2.0 (CHN: COandI chn:wdg)