Current projects
The Clinical Exercise and Rehabilitation Unit is a multi-disciplinary research team conducting a cluster of research projects into the use of computer-controlled Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) to recruit paralysed or paretic muscles of neurological patients.
This assistive technology is combined with exercise therapy to allow the user to stand, step forward or even ride an exercise bicycle. This enabling technology and rehabilitation therapy is clinically useful primarily to spinal cord injury, hemiparetic stroke and head injury patients.
The cluster of projects that have are currently underway include:
- FES-evoked muscle contractions for standing up and prolonging functional standing in incompletely-paralysed SCI patients
- FES-walking in completely paralysed SCI patients
- FES-evoked cycling and elliptical leg stepping exercise for stroke and head-injury patients
- FES-cycling to prevent post-traumatic osteoporosis in wheelchair users of neurological aetiology
- Innovative biomedical engineering and neurosurgical approaches to deploying implanted FES systems for stroke and head injury patients