Adaptive Rehabilitation using Mixed-reality at Home: The (ARM at Home) Study

Adaptive Rehabilitation using Mixed-reality at Home: The (ARM at Home) Study Adaptive Rehabilitation using Mixed-reality at Home: The (ARM at Home) Study We have a unique opportunity to secure seed funding from the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC), holder of an NIH R24 grant to promote contemporary technologies and their application in neurorehabilitation. The funding will be used to support the development of a research partnership on mixed reality rehabilitation at the home, and a related pilot study, between the School of Arts, Media and Engineering of ASU and two top rehabilitation research institutions in the nation: the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC)/Northwestern University and the Emory University School of Medicine/Department of Rehabilitation Medicine. The pilot study would allow for data to be gathered across the three collaborating sites as a precursor to submitting a three-site R01 application (worth several million dollars) to National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). We would intend to obtain such data within the next 18 months. The R24 mechanism is designed to assist in this process by providing limited (meager) pilot funds to prepare the prospective applicant to subsequently submit for substantial funding. The enthusiasm toward moving forward with this effort is not only high amongst the investigators at these 3 institutions but amongst colleagues within the National Center for Medical Rehabilitation (NCMRR in NICHD) and the clinical trials office at NINDS. Program officers at NIH see this project as having strong impact potential as it can lead to the eventual embracing of home based rehabilitation using interactive media for motivation and self-assessment and kinematics based movement analysis for quantifying and assessing movement quality. Our approach is unique because it will represent the first time that anyone has ever quantified quality of movement with the capability of segmenting that quantification to specific elements contributing to the totality of a reaching effort within the hemiparetic limb. AME/ASU will serve as the lead media engineering side in this research partnership and subsequent grant applications. ASU has developed the mixed reality rehabilitation technology and the kinematics analysis methodology that will be the base of this research partnership. It is already a major step that two leading rehabilitation centers are embracing our technology and we foresee increased national recognition with the completion of the pilot study and the potential securing of an R01 grant. Presently there are seven R24 grants throughout the country designed to support specific aspects of rehabilitation science with the RIC managed one addressing the rehabilitation technology neurorehabilitation science interface. The PIs from all seven independent R24s have agreed to limit indirects to 8% recognizing that the available funds are limited, the potential pay off is substantial, and their primary goal is to maximize use of R 24 funds to generate essential pilot data and not to absorb administrative or other related costs. I am attaching a letter from RIC stating this policy. Emory and Northwestern, our partners for this seed/pilot grant, have agreed to accept the 8% F&A rate, recognizing the potential payoff. Furthermore, each of those institutions have agreed to provide matching funds for the realization of the pilot study. Please also note that all overhead heavy work will happen at these two partner clinical sites as all clinical work will happen at those sites. The $30K provided to AME by the R24 (and matching $30K provided by AME) will go to support a PhD student working under the supervision of Assistant Professor Pavan Turaga (joint appointment between AME and ECEE). The student will work on development of movement analysis frameworks for quantifying movement quality in rehabilitation using the data from the stroke survivors that will be treated at the two partner sites. For this $30K award, at an 8% F&A rate, ASU would collect $2,000; at a 52.5% rate, ASU would collect $7,800. Ultimately, given the relatively small amount of the total award, ASU is not sacrificing much. This pilot grant and the development of this partnership, advances ASU work in rehabilitation, places our work in a national spotlight, creates the basis for securing significant amounts of NIH funding in the future and allows us to help the development of a talented junior faculty member.