ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES PROMOTING RESEARCH, TRAINING, AND TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER IN MOBILITY

Michael Boninger, Rachel Cowan, B.J. Fregly

Outline

Needs What we saw / What worked

Research Training Technology Transfer

Gap Analysis - What was missing

Education

Technology

Transfer

Research

Over 40 million Americans live with a disability

Disability in the form of limited activities and restricted participation in social life is not an unavoidable result of injury and chronic disease. It results, in part, from choices society makes about working conditions, health care, transportation, housing, and other aspects of our environment. IOM Report - 2007

Need

Need

To ameliorate disability we must Conduct high quality research Transfer the research to clinical practice

Barriers Lack of well trained researchers Technology transfer Changing clinical practice Small populations with low income

Education

NOVEL EDUCATIONAL APPROACH

Etienne Burdet, Imperial College

New course at Imperial College

Director : Wafa SKALLI

ARTS ET METIERS PARISTECHBIOMECHANICS LABORATORY

Laboratories

LBM Education: Msc, PhD Areas: Musculoskeletal, Modeling and clinical

evaluation, Biomechanics: Sport, health and safety, Biomechanics and nervous system: motion analysis and restoration

International masters degree program in Biomedical Engineering Collaboration between ParisTech and Paris

Descartes Medical University Admits half of students with engineering

background and half with clinical background

Education

Medicine 2010 KVT - Clinical Science and Technology (2008) Sports candidate (2008) Sports bachellor (2007) Medicine with indus. specialis. (2006) BSc+MSc. in BME (2000) Master in health informatics (1995) Ph.d. i Biomedical Science and Engineering

(1993) Medicoteknik: BME MSc (1978)

Problem Based Learning (PBL)Tell me and I will forget,Show me and I will remember,Involve me and I will understand,

Old proverb

Step back and I will act.

EDUCATIONSPBL Education at HST

Education Summary

Structure to support the highest quality education Multidisciplinary

Clinicians & Engineers Proximity Experiential

Problem based learning Critical Mass

Technology Transfer

UNIVERSITY OF TWENTE

Enschede, The Netherlands

MIRA

MIRA cuts across all departments, gathering expertise from many organizations and assisting them in bringing technology to market

MIRA currently has 250 researchers and will likely add 150 more in the next few years.

8 spin off companies to date and plan to have 3-5/year moving forward.

Researchers may obtain stake in these companies, that are primarily funded by outside investors

MIRA’s role is helping bring research to a marketable point and connecting investors with researchers.

Demcon – advanced mechatronics University of Twente spin off company

(1993) Incubator company

Brings products to market – up to first run series

Typically, a small or medium sized company has a problem and contracts with Demcon to provide a product solution.

RoboNED

Internal Dutch industry/academic/consumer innovation partnership supported by the Dutch government

Develop a strategic robotic research agenda for the Netherlands.

identify existing robotic research themes and research themes to pursue

ultimate goal of commercially viable products.

Cowan

LEO – Center for Service Robotics - notes

The Leo Center for Service Robotics is a newly formed collaborative offshoot of RoboNED. The LEO Center is located at University of Twente and includes a physical collaborative space. LEO has identified three service robotic themes: Medical (surgical, rehabilitation, prosthetics, etc…); http://www.leo-robotics.eu/index.html

Cowan

HOCOMA - ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MOVEMENT THERAPYPeter Hostettler, PhD & CEO, and team, Zurich

Structural

Commission for Technology and Innovation Joint projects between Swiss universities and

companies, funded by Swiss government, to support the commercialization of new technologies.

Hocoma projects funded and realized through CTI: Lokomat Assessment Tools for Lokomat Backtrainer: Augmented Feedback based

Therapy for Low Back Pain Hocoma has multiple relationships with

Universities and rehabilitation centers

HANDICOM – NEW TECHNOLOGIES FOR INDEPENDENCE

Prof. Mounir Mokhtari, Paris

Structural

Reciprocal Patent Relationship Telecom SudParis and Virginia Tech have a

reciprocal relationship whereby: Virginia Tech showcases Telecom SudParis patents

in the United States. Telecom SudParis showcases Virginia Tech patents

in France. Goal is to increase patent exposure to other

countries so as to maximize the likelihood of product development for improved healthcare.

Current focus is on development of wearable systems to improve patient monitoring and safety in the field.

Technology Transfer - Summary Structure to support technology transfer

Industry, research partnerships Government support Regulatory and business expertise Proximity

Gap Conflict of interest/solid research

Cooperation

RESTORATION OF HUMAN MOTOR FUNCTIONfrom Neurorobots to Motor Neuroprostheses

J.L. Pons

European co-operation

Rehab. Centres: RRD

Rehab. Robotics: UoR

EMG: AAU & U. Maribor

EEG: TUGraz & EKUT

FES: U. Belgrade

Robotics: TUDelft

Motion analysis: URT

Industries:• Prosthetics: Ossur• Textiles: Smartex• FES: UNA Sistemi• EEG: gTec• EMG: OT Bioelec

Hospitals:• H. Erasme• FSL

INSTITUT FOR SUNDHEDSVIDENSKAB OG TEKNOLOGIAALBORG UNIVERSITYAALBORG, DENMARK

DEPT. OF HEALTH SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

NetworkingMediconetHandiatekVCHIBioMedComCHATCenter for STV-CenTAHDMTSDSMIIDA-Sund

EntrepeneurshipIncubator at HSTInnovation office at HST

Spinn Out’s from HSTJudex DatasystemerNeurodan – Otto Boch Ditens A/SNemomedMermaid Care”AalQTeq /GE-Healthcare”TKSCardiosound

CollaborationsNovo NordiskRTXColoplastLundbeckPfitzerRadiometerWM-DataSystematic…..

Innovation

Your name here

Research Dissemination – External Relations

SENSORY-MOTOR SYSTEMS LAB, ETH, ZURICH

Prof., Dr. Robert Reiner

MIMICS

Multimodal Immersive Motion rehabilitation with interactive Cognitive Systems Funded by European Union – Seventh Framework Program Lokomat multimodal project observed at ETH

http://www.mimics.ethz.ch/index.php?page_id=0

MIMICS

Key structural/organizational property Technical, Clinical, and Industry partners involved Expected to end in a commercial product Pathway from technical development through

clinical evaluation and commercialization is well defined

40% non-competitive internal, a part of his faculty package Allows pilot development which translates into external funding

Goal is REAL products, so a balance must occur b/t discovery based learning & having to become competent in the multiple fields

Cooperation – summary

Cooperation Needed for Effective clinical trials Specialized expertise

Feeds Education Research Technology Transfer

Forced by EU funding mechanisms

Cooperation - Gap

Balance of Cooperation and Competition Forced versus real

Research

ORTHOPAEDIC SURGERY AND REHABILITATIONMaria Benedetti, M.D. and Alberto Leardini, Ph.D., Bologna

Rizzoli Institute Overview

Surgeon, physiatrist, and biomedical engineer all working in same lab and sharing one office space.

Research activities span from before surgery to rehabilitation activities following surgery.

Focus on movement analysis of the lower limb and more recently on the trunk for low back pain.

Surgeon does a combination of research and clinical duties (50-50).

Hospital sees over 150,000 patients per year.

Brian Caulfield, Academic Director

TRIL Centre

Looks at the physical, social and cognitive consequences of ageing and develops technologies to address them.

Collaboration between researchers in academic, clinical and industry settings (ethnographers, clinicians, and designers).

Novel bio-psycho-social cohort data-set & technology platforms. 

Ethnographers spend extended time understanding end users day-to-day lives. Helps to identify opportunities to put technologies.

Learn from our users – committed to a user-centered approach to technology development.

Research Summary

Infrastructure to support the highest quality research Multidisciplinary

Clinicians & Engineers Proximity We need to think of additional disciplines.

Gap Multiple groups repeating work

End user inputEnd user as investigatorEnd user as studentMany labs were not truly accessible

What was missing

Thank you