September 2020 News and Updates from MRRI

A younger and older women sitting opposite each other at a table having a converstaion.

In September, we were pleased to publish a blog article highlighting National Rehabilitation Awareness week and the cross-disciplinary approach that makes our diverse research team at MRRI uniquely equipped to make important advances in the field. We were also excited to announce that Dr. Amanda Rabinwitz, PhD, was featured on the People Behind the Science Podcast, and Dr. Sharon Antonucci, PhD, CCC-SLP, was interviewed on an Aphasia Access Conversations podcast. In addition, MRRI released a new video on the innovative research being conducted in our Human Motor Recovery Laboratory, led by MRRI Director, Dylan Edwards, PhD.

Since its inception, MRRI has been dedicated to developing novel technologies, tools, and resources for scientists and clinicians in neurorehabilitation. For over ten years, MRRI scientists, clinicians, and collaborators have worked together to create the Rehabilitation Treatment Specification System, a standardized system for specifying any and all rehabilitation treatments. Last month, we published a new article on the MRRI blog highlighting the RTSS, how it was developed, and the important needs in the field that it addresses. We also shared a blog article describing a new clinical protocol recently developed by MRRI scientists and collaborators to guide care for patients with severe memory deficits as a result of acute traumatic brain injury.

In the past month, scientists at MRRI have also made valuable contributions to the field through publications and presentations. We are proud that our team had ten new papers published or accepted for publication in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Dylan Edwards, PhD, participated in a virtual panel discussion hosted by the company Tyromotion on the technical, financial, and clinical benefits of implementing gait training devices in neurological therapy institutions, as well as the challenges to implementation. Further, Drs. Laurel Buxbaum, John Whyte, and Erica Middleton shared their work through presentations during the Institute Forum’s T32 Sessions. John Whyte, MD, PhD, also presented about measuring recovery and outcomes after brain injury as part of the Shrier Family Topics in Rehabilitation Science Series.

As we enter the final quarter of this year, we look forward to continuing to make progress remotely on work supported by ongoing research grants. We are also honored to announce that the MossRehab Aphasia Center has been awarded a new grant from the NIH to support research to assess an animal-assisted treatment program for adults with aphasia. This work will be led by Primary Investigator Sharon Antonucci, PhD, CCC-SLP, and we look forward to sharing more updates on this project in the coming months.

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