MIT Robot May Accelerate Trials for Stroke Medications
From: Medical Design Technology - 02/11/2014

The development of drugs to treat acute stroke or aid in stroke recovery is a
multibillion-dollar endeavor that only rarely pays off in the form of
government-approved pharmaceuticals. Drug companies spend years testing
safety and dosage in the clinic, only to find in Phase III clinical efficacy
trials that target compounds have little to no benefit. The lengthy process
is inefficient, costly, and discouraging, says Hermano Igo Krebs, a principal
research scientist in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Now a robot developed by Krebs and his colleagues may help speed up drug
development, letting pharmaceutical companies know much earlier in the
process whether a drug will ultimately work in stroke patients.

In their study, Krebs and his colleagues explored the robot MIT-Manus as a
tool for evaluating patient improvement over time. The robot, developed by
the team at MIT's Newman Laboratory for Biomechanics and Human
Rehabilitation, has mainly been used as a rehabilitation tool: Patients play
a video game by maneuvering the robot’s arm, with the robot assisting as
needed.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.mdtmag.com/news/2014/02/mit-robot-may-accelerate-trials-stroke-medications

Links:
MIT Manus - Robotic Rehabilitation Project (video 5:03)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EN5_24biEWU

Hermano Igo Krebs
http://meche.mit.edu/people/?id=130

Related:
Robot-Aided Wrist Rehabilitation after Stroke (with video 0:14)
http://newmanlab.mit.edu/robot-aided-wrist-rehabilitation-after-stroke/