Grant: Operating Grant

Fifty thousand Canadians each year have a stroke. Most of them have problems with movement, sensation, vision or language after their stroke and require rehabilitation. Measurement of how badly a person has been affected by a stroke is very important. It determines what treatment they need and can predict how much they will recover. Unfortunately, the traditional methods used to measure these things after a stroke have many flaws. They are crude and do not provide the information that patients, therapists and physicians often need. Recent advances in robotic technology can significantly improve this situation. This project involves measuring problems with sensation after stroke using a robot. Sensation is important in stroke recovery and function in daily life. Yet, none of our current assessment tools do a very good job of measuring it. Additionally, we do not have good treatments available when sensation is lost after a stroke. We will develop new tools, using robots to measure sensation and movement in stroke survivors. With the information gathered from our measurements we will develop a new treatment, using the robot to deliver therapy to improve recovery from stroke.