Center for Smart Use of Technology to Assess Rehabilitation

This P2C application creates a national infrastructure center entitled “Smart Use of Technology to Assess Rehabilitation (C-STAR)” that directly addresses priority area #6 from RFA HD-20-04 entitled, “Technology to Track Real-World Outcomes.” Based on the collective experiences of our clinicians, scientists, engineers and patients, our program will provide a resource to support the rehabilitation research community regarding the smart use of technology to assess performance in the laboratory (e.g., providing design insight into a new sensor), in the clinic (e.g., teaching proper selection and placement of sensors on a patient’s body) and in the community (e.g., guiding investigators regarding validated patient reported outcome measures; Fig. OV1). By helping the medical rehabilitation community to measure performance across these three domains, these professionals will not only be able to track real-world outcomes but will ultimately suggest underlying mechanisms. Users of our center will be individuals or teams who would like to perform research that uses technology to measure performance of individuals with physical disabilities. As we connect with our users, we will make available numerous didactic, hands-on, visitation, pilot project and advisory activities that will mentor them to independence. Our center’s impact will be measured broadly by publications, grants applied for and/or received as a result of our support, newly established collaborations, and participation in our didactic programs. Based on these goals, our Specific Aims are to : 1. Establish a Connect ➝ Learn ➝ Act ➝ Share pipeline to efficiently deliver C-STAR resources to the rehabilitation community. This pipeline provides clear entry and exit points for use of our center’s resources. 2. Create four cores with expertise that spans the domains of engineering, clinical medicine, outcomes and implementation science. 3. Create a robust pilot project program that provides outside researchers with funding and expertise to perform sophisticated experiments relevant to our center’s mission as well as appropriate mentoring. 4. Disseminate our center’s resources to the research community via webinars, sabbaticals and courses, relying heavily on our website (www.rehabmeasures.org) that receives an astounding 11,000 hits/day.