The Medical College of Wisconsin has received a five-year, $702,755 grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health to assess how well robot-assisted practices work in activities of daily living in stroke patients and to discover the reasons for the recovery. Study results may lead to expanded use of robot-assisted therapy for patients who have suffered from stroke and other neurological disabilities.
Michelle Johnson, Ph.D., assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation, is principal investigator for the grant.
Strokes are the most commonly acquired neurological disability in adults. Robot-assisted therapy is seen as the cutting-edge of treatment in stroke rehabilitation, and preliminary studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of this new therapy.
Dr. Johnson will assess the effect robot-assisted therapy has on short-term and long-term functional improvements in stroke patients. Using functional MRI brain imaging, she will also assess how robot-assisted therapy contributes to changes in the central nervous system.
