ASET Technology Alberta Fall 2022 - 17

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The UofA's Sensory Motor Adaptive Rehabilitation Technology
(SMART) Network, made up of various laboratories across
the university's campus, has also been working closely with
these applications at one of their labs. At the SMART Network's
Robotics and Virtual Reality Lab, the researchers focus
on augmented and virtual reality training for rehabilitation.
This and other work done throughout the network has
attracted entrepreneurs, industry players, and had start-up
companies take off and flourish from its walls.
That external attraction is a vital function of the network,
according to Jonathan Butterworth. In his role as business
development manager with the SMART Network's business
arm, ST Innovations, Butterworth liaises between all the players
within the network and externally. He says having that
commercial draw can make the difference of life or death in
whether a healthcare technology finds its way into the world.
" Commercializing [the technology] is very, very tough and 95
per cent of new technologies never even make it across this
bridge, " Butterworth says. Such a drastic innovation drain is
exactly what the SMART Network aims to plug.
Even though the SMART network started
only about two years ago, they've
already seen results helping translate
research to real world. " This is really
the academia research world, coming
together with the business world,
with the commercialization, and this
is very important. These companies,
once they have success, they can start
their sales, they can start exporting
their technologies and their services, "
Butterworth explains.
Rehabilitation success stories originating from the network
include the Smart-e-Pants, which prevent pressure injuries
(commonly known as bedsores). These garments accomplish
that by electrically stimulating stationary bodily areas
of patients confined to hospital beds and unable to move.
MedRoad Inc., another successfully launched endeavour, is
a diagnostic company working to improve on remote care for
individuals living in isolated areas.
Besides the commercialization of rehabilitation tech, Reinkensmeyer
points to high engagement with events like the
Cybathalon international competition as another successful
means of channeling the public.
" This approach combined neuroscience, engineering, and
rehabilitation with very strong usability and reliability constraints
in a way not seen before. Because of the Cybathlon,
more people are now working on diversely, inventive ways
to solve truly stubborn problems in rehabilitation - including
stair climbing wheelchairs, agile powered leg exoskeletons,
robustly responsive brain-computer interfaces, and
dexterous prostheses, " Reinkensmeyer writes. " By framing
technology development as a public, international competition,
Cybathlon has promoted a new approach to assistive
technology research. "
Increased emphasis on crossdisciplinary
teams and solutions
means that those traditionally
separated from clinical rehabilitation
problems, like engineers, engineering
technologists and engineering
technicians, are now more familiar
with how to design tech that will
address the needs of the recipients.
Inversely, increased familiarity with
the tech and translation helps
users and clinical professionals to
communicate and incorporate what's
most needed and desired.
As expected, all the interdisciplinary mixing of so many different
viewpoints has revealed new applications outside of
rehabilitation: the hidden hands of human enhancement.
That increased collaboration lends itself well to one of the
biggest areas of rehabilitation spilling into augmentation:
exoskeletons for metabolic reduction. Such applications can
enhance, for instance, warehouse workers or soldiers carrying
heavy packs, so they can do their work without as much
punishment on their bodies.
TECHNOLOGY ALBERTA | FALL 2022 | 17
https://stinnovations.ca/smart-e-pants/ https://jneuroengrehab.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1743-0003-11-80 https://stinnovations.ca/research/medroad-inc/
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