Rehabilitation centers and labs
- Falk Neurorehabilitation Engineering Research Center
- Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Accessible Medical Instrumentation
- Orthopaedic and Engineering Research Center
- Rehabilitation Robotic Research and Design Lab
Falk Neurorehabilitation Engineering Research Center
The Department of Biomedical Engineering at offers more than 5,000 square feet of research space in its Neurorehabilitation Engineering Research Center. This center serves research and development activities in neurorehabilitation, investigating optimal intervention strategies for movement therapy. R&D activities range from basic science (e.g., neuromuscular adaptive mechanisms) to the development and evaluation of innovative therapeutic intervention strategies. Integral to the FNERC are three laboratories run by Marquette biomedical engineering core faculty:
- Neurorobotic and Neuroevaluation Laboratories — Dr. Robert Scheidt
- Integrative Neural Engineering & Rehabilitation Laboratory — Dr. Brian Schmit
- Telemonitoring and Teletherapy Laboratory — Dr. Jack Winters
These labs offer force platforms, EMGs, motion tracking systems, robotic manipulators, a CyberGlove, telehealth technology, and numerous instruments and sensors for measuring and assessing human motor and sensory performance. Target populations are stroke and spinal cord injury and, to a lesser extent, cerebral palsy and autism.
We are also a member of the Midwest Rehabilitation Network (funded by a R24 grant from NIH, centered at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago), which also focuses on neurorehabilitation.
Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on accessible medical instrumentation
The goal of this center is to evaluate methods and technologies to increase the usability and accessibility of diagnostic, therapeutic and procedural health care equipment for people with disabilities. Researchers work closely with consumers, health care practitioners, hospitals and manufacturers to increase access to and utilization of medical instrumentation and services by individuals with disabilities, including technologies that support employment in the health care professions. This RERC is one of 22 national RERC Centers of Excellence that are administered through the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research of the U.S. Department of Education. It is the first to specifically address the critical need for new medical instrumentation technologies that move toward the ideal of a society where health care is universally accessible to all people.
Orthopaedic and Engineering Research Center
- Dr. Gerald Harris, director
- Deborah Epps, OREC administrator
(414) 288-0696
depps@mcw.edu
- Human Motion Analysis Laboratory
Dr. Gerald Harris
The human motion analysis laboratory, located at the Medical College of Wisconsin, is designed to support a broad range of clinical and research-oriented projects. Clinically, it is structured to evaluate adult, foot and ankle, pediatric, sports medicine, and total joint patients during ambulation and other activities. Educational opportunities for students are provided through clinical research project participation and interaction with medical residents. Numerous technical development projects are supported through close collaboration with the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Marquette. A full-time engineer and a half-time graduate research fellow from Marquette staff the laboratory.
The resources provided through the Human Motion Analysis Laboratory include a testing area and an examination/preparation area. The Human Motion Analysis Laboratory clinically evaluates between two and five patients per week. Equipment includes seven motion analysis cameras, two force plates, a PC-based motion analysis work station, a 10-channel EMG system, a foot insole pressure measurement system, PCs for data analysis and motion analysis software. - Orthopaedic Biomechanics Laboratory
Dr. Mei Wang, director
This lab is designed and maintained to support basic science and applied research projects in orthopaedic biomechanics. Research methods often encompass in-vitro experiments, mechanical testing and computer modeling. - Biomaterials Laboratory
Dr. Jeffrey Toth
This lab complex, directed by Dr. Jeffrey Toth with facilities on both campuses, supports basic science, clinical research and research training in the areas of tissue engineering, bone grafts and substitutes, ceramic biomaterials, and histology.
Rehabilitation Robotic Research and Design Lab
The application of robots in the rehabilitation of the upper extremity as therapy is a relatively new application and research area in biomedical engineering — and one with potentially great impact on daily lives of impaired persons. Research studies with robot-assisted therapy environments have indicated that these environments are able to achieve significant reduction in motor impairment and provide objective functional assessment and intensive training in a semiautonomous environment.
Through the design, development and therapeutic use of novel, affordable, intelligent robotic/mechatronic and domotic assistants, this lab is focused on examining underlying causes of upper-limb impairment after neural disease, injury or cerebral accident, on discovering effective methods to retrain functional recovery on daily living activities, and on developing new ways of facilitating independent living in daily living environments. Equipment include: a 6-DOF robotic system (3 passive and 3 active degrees) called the HapticMaster from FCS Robotics; a Driver's SEAT, a 1 degree of freedom robotic device that incorporates a modified PC-based driving simulator to create simple and motivating steering tasks; and the Thera-Drive, a low-cost, commercially viable, home-based rehabilitation system that can capitalize on computer-assisted motivating rehabilitation concepts of game therapy and skill training with functional training related to real activity to induce user-dependent CNS plasticity.
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