Northwestern PT Research Targets Stroke, Injuries with Novel Therapies From: Northwestern E-News - Volume 4, Number 5 - January 16, 2003 http://www.northwestern.edu/news/ The physical therapy department at the Feinberg School of Medicine is helping to change the face of the discipline. Using cutting edge technology, researchers are learning how to prevent injuries and develop more targeted therapies. Mark Rogers, associate professor of physical therapy, studies falls. Attaching a harness and electrodes to subjects, he uses an apparatus to knock them down. Subjects are caught before they are hurt, but Rogers details the mechanics of each fall on a computer. From this, physical therapists will be able to design fall prevention therapies for patients. Timothy Hain, associate professor of physical therapy, looks at whiplash. He places subjects in a tracked sled and sends them hurling forward. The force is not enough to hurt anyone, but enough to study the mechanics of the injury, which are modeled digitally. They will be used to design better recovery therapies. For more information, go to http://www.nupt.northwestern.edu/research.html