VA Research Currents - Aug / Sep 2007

New bionic ankle debuts at Providence VA - page 1

The first powered ankle-foot prosthesis, an important advance for lower- limb
amputees, was unveiled July 23 at the Providence VA Medical Center. Garth
Stewart, a 24-year-old Army veteran who lost his left leg below the knee
following an injury in Iraq, demonstrated the new prosthesis. 


Wheelchair innovator to be honored by Multiple Sclerosis Society - page 5

Rory Cooper, PhD, director of the VA Center of Excellence in Wheelchairs and
Associated Rehabilitation Engineering - part of the Human Engineering
Research Laboratories at the University of Pittsburgh and VA Pittsburgh
Healthcare System - will receive the 2007 daVinci Lifetime Achievement Award
on September 28, 2007 from the Michigan Chapter of the National Multiple
Sclerosis Society. 


Robotic stroke therapy put to test - page 8

Photo caption:
Allen Wright, a former Navy aircraft mechanic who suffered a stroke in 2000,
exercises his affected arm with the use of a robot called the MIT-Manus.
Looking on is exercise physiologist Tim DeHaan. Wright, a patient at the
Baltimore VA, is among more than 150 veterans taking part in a VA-funded
clinical trial at Baltimore and three other VA sites - West Haven,
Gainesville and Seattle - comparing robotic therapy with intensive
non-robotic therapy for improving motor function in chronic stroke 

Read these articles at:
http://www.research.va.gov/resources/pubs/docs/va_research_currents_aug-sept_07.pdf