Advanced Platform Technology Center

Louis Stokes Cleveland Va Medical Center, Cleveland OH

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

The Advanced Platform Technology (APT) Center addresses the pressing clinical needs of disabled Veterans by facilitating the creation and clinical translation of novel restorative or assistive devices and therapies within a framework that promotes regulatory compliance, outsourcing by contract manufacturers, clinical testing, and dissemination throughout the rehabilitation community. Its unique and supportive environment enables VA investigators to develop advanced assistive or restorative technologies that serve Veterans with sensory, motor, or cognitive deficits, as well as limb loss. The Center capitalizes on significant local expertise in pursuit of research and development activities in four main clinical application areas: Prosthetics & Orthotics, Health Monitoring & Maintenance, Activity-Based Neurorehabilitation, and Neural Interfacing. The foundational technology enabling us to proceed from ideation and proof-of-concept through first-in-man clinical feasibility testing and commercialization are developed by our Core Investigators in collaboration with faculty in the Schools of Engineering and Medicine at Case Western Reserve University. Specifically, we focus on new approaches to wirelessly reconnect disabled Veterans with their impaired organ or sensorimotor systems and enable access to remote expert healthcare that meets them where they are geographically and in their daily lives. We Innovate, Integrate, and Translate new rehabilitative and restorative techniques and technologies for connected Veteran-centric health through omnidirectional communication of information between the body, the therapeutic device, the user, and the outside world. Examples of new initiatives and priorities for the 2025-2029 performance cycle include controlling incontinence and drug resistant hypertension automatically and wirelessly via closed loop neuromodulation based on previous APT Center technologies, delivering home-based vestibular rehabilitation and opportunities to exercise for disabled Veterans with virtual reality, harnessing Internet of Things (IOT) technology to improve access to care providers, and enhancing Veteran engagement via social media and web-based outreach. We strive to pursue high impact projects that span the spectrum from new materials and microsystems for communicating with the nervous system for novel neurotherapeutic or neuroprosthetic interventions to novel active exoskeletons and other assistive devices that enable disabled Veterans to exercise, walk, and climb stairs in their homes and communities. The Center has established the internal engineering, design control, regulatory, communications and administrative support systems to accelerate its discoveries along the translational spectrum to eventual clinical implementation. Our programs proactively facilitate generation and protection of original intellectual properties, encourage interactions with the clinical services at the Medical Center and throughout the VHA, and identify, mentor, and retain talented clinician-scientists dedicated to improving Veterans health. These investments include start-up and bridge funding to seed new projects and ensure continuity and progress between grants, Center-sponsored medical monitoring, purchasing and budgetary management, medical illustration, statistical consulting, and translational services such as focus groups and market analyses, increase productivity and efficiency of Center Investigators. As a result, APT Investigators excel in securing significant independent support from multiple local, national, governmental, and private agencies such as NIH, DARPA, NSF, and DoD in addition to Merit Review and other VA funding. Investigators disseminate their findings broadly in prestigious peer-reviewed journals and lay media outlets, as well as at clinical and scientific meetings. They work closely with the VA Technology Transfer Office to establish corporate partnerships and license their technologies. We continue to create opportunities to connect Veterans to the healthcare and restorative or rehabilitative interventions they need, while actively educating and promoting future VA scientists from under-represented populations.