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SPOTLIGHT
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SEA-ING IS BELIEVING ENHP’s Duffy Felmlee explores new frontiers in orthotics and prosthetics As a clinician and a researcher, Duffy Felmlee has a unique understanding of what it means to translate knowledge from the lab to day-to-day practice. Now, through his research with the Combat Wounded Veterans Challenge, he’s finding his ability to make an impact knows no bounds—even below sea level. Felmlee, an associate professor of rehabilitation sciences at the College of Education, Nursing and Health Professions, has spent the last five years working with the organization on, admittedly, very niche research: studying the performance of people with lower-limb loss with and without their prostheses while scuba diving. Through their study design, which tracks and evaluates motion underwater along with other key factors, Felmlee and his research team hope to develop and institute clinical best practices for individuals with lower-limb loss to participate in scuba diving. “In the able-bodied community, we’re seeing an uptick in subsurface rehabilitative aquatic activities—not only because it’s fun, but because there is a lot to gain from being in a gravity-reduced environment,” he says. “This work opens the door for people with lower-extremity amputations to have those same experiences, along with the social and physiological benefits that diving provides these veterans.” H / UNIVERSITY OF HARTFORD MAGAZINE
