NASA Rehab Tool Brings People to Their Feet From: Technology for Today - page 12 Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC, has begun using the Secure Ambulation Mode (S.A.M.) physical therapy device to rehabilitate patients with spinal cord or traumatic brain injuries. A product of Enduro Medical Technology (East Hartford, CT), S.A.M. is based on technology developed at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). Enduro donated the S.A.M. unit to Walter Reed to facilitate rehabilitation for military patients, including soldiers returning home from service in Iraq. "We felt S.A.M. would be an ideal fit for Walter Reed because it makes the rehabilitation process less taxing on both the patient and the medical staff," said Enduro’s president Ken Messier. According to Messier, S.A.M. allows patients to stand or walk - partially weight bearing, full weight bearing or non-weight bearing - whether they have a sense of balance or not. "It allows them to be up in a standing position without having three or four therapists having to help them stand," explained Messier. "So it gets the patient up sooner in the rehab process without a fear of falling and without an injury to the patient or staff members." At Walter Reed, the device is being used to help patients with a variety of traumatic injuries to the spinal cord and brain. According to Messier, one active military patient who was wheelchair-bound for two years due to a thoracic spinal cord injury is now up and walking with S.A.M. "When we first put him in the walker, he was up and going for 25 minutes," explained Messier. "He’s now walking for up to 25 minutes every day and even using S.A.M. to perform exercises to strengthen his leg muscles." Developed at Goddard Space Flight Center, the patented technology behind S.A.M. includes an earlier model walker device and a cable-compliant joint mechanism. Unlike a fixed joint, which can move in only one or two directions, NASA’s compliant joint allows subtle movement in six directions with variable degrees of stiffness. Enduro licensed both patents from NASA and added the joint mechanism to the walker’s harness, enabling greater flexibility in the walker’s use and creating a commercially viable product. The donation of S.A.M. to Walter Reed was made possible with support from The Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine (HJF). HJF is a nonprofit organization that provides a resource link between military medicine organizations and private industry. "I commend Enduro for donating its medical devices to help with rehabilitation efforts at Walter Reed," said HJF president John Lowe. "We’re very glad to be able to facilitate this collaboration, which provides additional resources for the treatment of our military personnel." Photo caption: Enduro Medical Technology President Ken Messier assists with a demonstration of the company’s NASA technology - based youth walker, SAM-Y, at Space Day 2006. Download the entire document at: http://www.federallabs.org/pdf/Tech_For_Today.pdf Links: S.A.M.-Y http://www.sam-y.net/ Injured US Troops Being Helped by NASA Technology http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=50304 NASA Technology Comes to Rescue of Injured US Troops http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/everydaylife/SAM.html http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2006/SAM.html