Leading
FORward The Center for ADVANCED Clinical Research
COVER: The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC) was a key contributor to the development of the prototype 1 prosthetic arm (Proto 1), the first of the next generation prosthetic arms built for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Revolutionizing Prosthetics Program. this page: RIC researchers use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to identify where damage has occurred in the brain after stroke or other injury to develop and focus techniques enhancing the brain’s ability to create new neural connections.
The Center for ADVANCED Clinical Research
WORKING AT THE
CUTTiNG EDGE
Martine Maenhout was paralyzed by a rare spinal tumor, and doctors thought she’d never walk again. After therapy on one of RIC’s Lokomats—a revolutionary robot-assisted therapeutic device—Martine plays tennis, travels and enjoys life with her children.
Jesse Sullivan lost his arms in an accident. RIC created his bionic arm and restored his ability to do things he thought he would never do again, like mowing the lawn, fishing and repairing his vintage truck.
A brain hemorrhage left teenager Scott Chan unable to move, speak or eat. After RIC treatment that included intensive robot-assisted therapy, he is back in high school and thriving.
There are so many ways of advancing human ability today and intervening to minimize the effects of physical injury, disease and other debilitating health conditions. The possibilities of 21st-century biomedical science are expanding at an astonishing rate. And RIC is in the full-throttle, cutting-edge forefront of it all. You can be, too, through your support of RIC’s Center for Advanced Clinical Research.
exploring
uncharted territory
Never has RIC’s research engine been more revved up or central to the innovative care that continues to earn The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago ranking by U.S. News & World Report as the country’s #1 rehabilitation hospital—an honor it has been awarded every year since 1991.
Dr. Richard Harvey, Dixon Stroke Chair and Medical Director of Stroke Rehabilitation, and Dr. James Stinear, neuroscientist in RIC’s Sensory Motor Performance Program, apply an electromagnetic brain stimulator equipped with an MRI visual navigation system to test whether brain stimulation can reduce inappropriate nerve impulses to the injured side of the brain after stroke, with the goal of improving hand and arm movements and eliminating paralyzing symptoms in stroke survivors.
RIC’s Searle Rehabilitation Research Center is the world’s largest private research organization in physical medicine and rehabilitation. It receives more federal funding for research in its field than any other institution in the country, perhaps in the world. RIC is the only rehabilitation hospital to hold six federal research designations, recognizing its distinguished leadership in spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury, stroke, neural engineering, bionic medicine, and outcomes research. More than 250 research projects are underway right now, representing an investment of over $20 million annually in public and private support. RIC researchers are rethinking and reformulating traditional procedures and tools and pushing the boundaries of what is possible in physical medicine and rehabilitation. From innovations in rehabilitative therapy to groundbreaking achievements in bionic engineering and smart devices, RIC is reinventing itself and its field. Now, the Center for Advanced Clinical Research has been designated to bring special focus on studies done “at the bedside,” with the most immediate promise for directly advancing patients’ ability.
Numerous projects are underway in RIC’s Center for Pain Studies, among them the use of biofeedback relaxation techniques and the application of a topical Lidocaine skin patch to reduce and cure post-amputation pain. Shown here is a thermography camera used to gauge patient pain.
leveraging
assets
RIC research spans the full range of biomedical inquiry—from basic science to patient outcomes —but it is clinical research that holds center stage in translating discoveries rapidly for patient benefit. Clinical research at RIC is human-based research. It studies the mechanics of disease and injury, the latest therapies and interventions, and the development of new technologies and smart devices to advance patient ability. The pinnacle of clinical research is conducting clinical trials, which are studies of scientific precision that determine if specific interventions are safe and effective in humans; if so, they become the standard of care everywhere. RIC clinical trials range across a wide and important spectrum: from the testing or application of new drugs, to the evaluation of novel treatments and therapies, and on to the investigation of creative smart devices and new technologies. Because RIC is the choice of so many patients, RIC is in a unique position to conduct clinical research and clinical trials at the highest levels of sophistication and complexity—which carry the greatest potential for cure. People from around the world seek to receive care and to be part of the team at RIC because of its pioneering and innovative work to eliminate the effects of complex conditions, such as stroke, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury and cerebral palsy, as well as more common conditions, such as arthritis, chronic pain and sports injuries. Through the Center for Advanced Clinical Research, RIC’s assets will be leveraged to their fullest, resulting in the most promising medical interventions, attraction of the best talent, and the setting and dissemination of new standards of care across the world.
Dr. Todd Kuiken, Director of RIC’s Neural Engineering Center for Bionic Medicine, has helped numerous patients with upper-arm amputation—including U.S. servicemen and women returning from combat—since he revealed his first groundbreaking bionic arm in 2002. He is now developing the bionic leg and working toward initial clinical trials.
Dr. Konrad Kording, research scientist in RIC’s Sensory Motor Performance Program, explores how people move and how their movements are affected by uncertainty. One most intriguing aspect of his clinical research is the use of popular gaming technology, such as the Nintendo Wii, within the rehabilitation care protocol.
Dr. Colleen Fitzgerald, Medical Director of the Women’s Health Rehabilitation Program, investigates how ultrasound may help doctors diagnose muscular and skeletal causes of the pelvic pain that often affects women in pregnancy.
creating
a new locus
Public and private funding to advance RIC research has increased by more than 75 percent in recent years, a testament to its track record of success and the life-enhancing promise that informed backers know is inherent in this work.
Dr. T. George Hornby, research scientist in RIC’s Sensory Motor Performance Program, studies gait recovery after spinal cord injury and stroke, using several novel devices such as the Pedago, the first in clinical trial at a U.S. hospital.
RIC has assembled a prestigious and dedicated research corps attracted by its lead investigators with entrepreneurial spirit from around the world. Its renowned medical staff is increasingly involved in research projects directly related to the care of the patients they see at RIC. Ongoing associations with Northwestern University and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine bring to the table still other researchers to direct important projects and collaborators who contribute their expertise. Vital affiliations and partnering relationships with RIC range from academic to industry and reach across the country and internationally. The Center for Advanced Clinical Research at RIC has been designed to take advantage of extraordinary growth and scientific potential through a new structure in which current clinical research can advance most rapidly, future clinical research projects can be launched expeditiously, and clinical trials can be designed safely and effectively and pursued aggressively. Moreover, the new structure will serve to nourish and support all the essential resources for success—human, physical, technological and financial. The center creates its own locus of energy, expertise and support through which RIC will more rapidly and effectively produce new knowledge and standards of care for the world and advance the pace of patient recovery and human ability.
RIC’s Center for Aphasia Research helps people who have lost the ability to communicate verbally or in writing, a condition that can result from a stroke, a brain tumor or disease. Aphasia research underway in the center works to promote neuroplasticity —the brain’s ability to reorganize itself to compensate for injury— through studies using computer-based treatments, drug trials and electrical stimulation of the brain.
The National Institute of Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) designated RIC a Traumatic Brain Injury Model System in 2008. With NIDRR support, clinical studies at RIC use novel interventions such as virtual reality, robotic intervention and acupuncture, all to promote better recovery after brain injury.
LEADING
FORWARD
In December 2009 RIC announced the acquisition of land at the corner of Ontario Street and McClurg Court, located within the medical/research campus that includes Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern Memorial Hospital and the upcoming Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. On this land, RIC is planning its new facility for the 21st century, a center for the advancement of human ability unlike any other on the planet. In its new facility, RIC will fuse clinical care and research, closely surrounding the patient, to directly and swiftly create new medical solutions. In this new, futuristic center, RIC will lead the world in discovering and progressing more effective treatments in physical medicine and rehabilitation for generations to come. As plans for the new hospital are formulated, it is more important than ever that RIC research be optimized now. Underwriting the work of the Center for Advanced Clinical Research is a key way in which private-sector benefactors may influence the pace of RIC’s clinical research right now, while also ensuring a most assertive and advantageous positioning of this important work as it is embedded in the new facility.
this page: An RIC physical therapist helps a stroke patient regain the ability to walk through body-weight-supported treadmill training (BWSTT). This gait-training therapy helps patients relearn the motor functions of walking faster, more symmetrically and more efficiently than traditional therapies. back cover: Dr. Richard F. ff. Weir, senior research scientist in RIC’s Sensory Motor Performance Program, is developing an implantable myoelectric sensor to help amputees access greater neuromuscular information for controlling advanced bionic prosthetics, enabling their faster, more efficient, more natural movement.
funds are needed NOW to: Recruit an internationally recognized director for the Center for Advanced Clinical Research; Employ experienced support staff in such fields as project design and biostatistics, key experts necessary for investigators to achieve their research objectives; Provide seed funding for new clinical research projects that will serve as foundation for grants from the National Institutes of Health and other major funders; Establish and equip core space tailored to the requirements of researchers and their objectives; Broaden current work in such areas as clinical drug trials and therapeutic technology/ smart devices; Enable RIC’s entrée into emerging areas of investigation, such as nanotechnology, biomaterials and cellular regeneration; and Disseminate RIC findings around the world to institutions and individuals dedicated to improving and eliminating the symptoms of injury and disease.
As RIC leads forward and redefines itself and the rehabilitation industry for the 21st century, your investment in the Center for Advanced Clinical Research will make its work of the future—and patient recovery—possible.
For additional information and to discuss your commitment, please contact: The RIC Foundation 345 East Superior Street Chicago, Illinois 60611 (312) 238-6013 www.ric.org
Joanne C. Smith, MD President and Chief Executive Officer W. Zev Rymer, MD, PhD Vice President, Research John G. Searle Chair Andrew K. Welch Senior Vice President and Chief Development Officer