Greg Bedan was enrolled in the National Spinal Cord Injury Model System Database in 1973 - the year it was established.

The National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research has awarded a $4.2 million, five-year grant to Shirley Ryan AbilityLab to lead an international study exploring rehabilitation length of stay and related experiences and outcomes of people with spinal cord injury. 

Allen Heinemann, PhD, director of the Center for Rehabilitation Outcomes Research (CROR) at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab is the project director. Anne Deutsch, PhD, RN, clinical research scientist in CROR, is co-project director. The study includes collaborators in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, The Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom.

Researchers in the Midwest Regional Spinal Cord Injury Care System (MRSCICS) at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab led by Monica Perez, PhD, PT, co-authored a paper in the Annals of Neurology titled “Multisite Hebbian Plasticity Restores Function in Humans with Spinal Cord Injury.”

Participants in the study who received a unique kind of noninvasive neural stimulation delivered through the skin showed greater improvements in walking speed and corticospinal function than participants who got sham stimulation. Participants also showed greater improvements with more sessions, and improvements persisted for up to nine months.

Pain After SCI: Activity Modification for Musculoskeletal Pain

This Fact Sheet from the Model Systems Knowledge Translation Center provides information about what you can do to minimize pain from overuse of muscles, arthritis or injury.

SCI Research Opportunities

Online wheelchair

repair course

Researchers in the University of Pittsburgh Model Center on Spinal Cord Injury are recruiting participants who use wheelchairs to take their online course in wheelchair repair. The are trying to determine if the web-based training program is effective at improving wheelchair maintenance skills.

Equity and Quality in Assistive Technology (EQuATe)

This project is recruiting participants to investigate the equity and quality of assistive technology provision and outcomes for individuals with spinal cord injury or a diagnosis that affects the spinal cord.

INside the OUTcomes: A Rehabilitation Research Podcast

INside the OUTcomes: A Rehabilitation Research Podcast features interviews with CROR scientists and other leading experts in rehabilitation research. Episodes have covered HCBS, employment and people with disabilities, the Rehabilitation Measures Database and more.

Episodes are released the second Tuesday of each month.

Listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.  

For questions or comments, please contact

312-238-2820 or outcomesresearch@sralab.org

The contents of this newsletter were developed under a grant from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR grant 90DPKT0007). NIDILRR is a Center within the Administration for Community Living (ACL) in the Department of Health and Human Services (DHSS). The contents of this newsletter do not necessarily represent the policy of NIDILRR, ACL or DHSS and you should not assume endorsement by the federal government.