Pathokinesiology Laboratory Research

The Pathokinesiology Laboratory at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center has been engaged for many years in analyzing and investigating interventions for neuropathological gait in individuals with stroke and lower limb loss as well as in studying wheelchair propulsion and pain management in individuals with spinal cord injury, among many other initiatives. The Pathokinesiology Laboratory also manages the participation of Rancho in the multi-center Spinal Cord Injury Model System funded by NIDILLR (Southern California Spinal Cord Injury), which has been an ongoing project for many years. Below are research projects from the current funding cycle, 2016-2022. More details on present and past research projects can be found here.

Recent Funding Support

· Development and community evaluation of a real-time system for monitoring, feedback, and training to prevent pressure injuries in individuals with spinal cord injury (9/20 – 8/24)

· MiGo-Wheels: A holistic feedback system to help wheelchair users maintain a healthy lifestyle (4/20 – 10/20)

· Development and Pilot Testing of a Community-based, Non-pharmacologic Pain Management Program for Persons with SCI (4/20 – 3/22)

· Spinal Cord Injury Pain Evolution (SCIPE) Study (5/19 – 4/22)

· Toward a Mechanistic Understanding of Optimization Principles Underlying Hemiparetic Gait (5/18 – 5/22)

· Comparative Effectiveness of Off-the-Shelf (OTS) vs. Custom-made Ankle-Foot Orthosis in Individuals with Stroke. (9/18 – 09/2021)

· Southern California Spinal Cord Injury Model System at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center Site Specific Research —A

Randomized Comparative Effectiveness Trial to Evaluate Two Programs for Increasing Physical Activity in persons with Spinal Cord Injury (9/16 – 9/21)

· Interactive Tele-health and Auto-Biofeedback Sensor System for Individuals who Use Wheelchair (5/17 – 1/21)

· Evaluation of the MOTUS Smart Boot System as a Diabetic Foot Ulcer Offloading Intervention (Pilot). (10/19 – 9/20)

· Development of a Biopsychosocial Prospective Surveillance Model of Shoulder Pain in SCI (8/17-7/20)

· Southern California Spinal Cord Injury Model System at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center Site Specific Research — A Randomized Clinical Trial to Evaluate Two Prevention Programs for Preventing Shoulder Pain in persons with Spinal Cord Injury (11/11 – 9/17)

· Psychosocial contributors to pain management and physical activity after SCI (4/15 – 3/17)

· Scapular Biomechanics and Shoulder Pain in Wheelchair Users with SCI (7/13 – 6/16)

· Interactive Tele-health and Auto-Biofeedback Sensor System for Individuals who Use Wheelchair (04/13 – 03/16)

· Modular Orthosis Prescription System (MOPS) (10/10 – 09/14)