Research 

Pioneering research in the OSU Medical Center rehabilitation program has been key to our 40 years of excellence and innovation in the field. Long a leader in clinical research to develop and refine new patient care therapies and technologies, we are also at the forefront of “translational” research, a cutting-edge new research focus that is encouraged in the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Roadmap for Medical Research. 

Translational research begins with discoveries at the most fundamental levels that greatly increase our knowledge of injuries and illnesses, and the conversion of that knowledge into advanced patient care therapies.

Our clinical and basic sciences research is broadly focused in traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries, stroke, bone and mineral metabolism and electrodiagnostic medicine, all of which touch a huge range of medical and scientific disciplines. Our active collaboration continuously fuels more ideas for research that can be translated into leading-edge patient care.

Here are just a few examples of our ongoing research:

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
We are a recognized leader in TBI research and treatment and as such are a key part of the Traumatic Brain Injury Model System Program, a national network and database for brain injury treatment funded by the U.S. Department of Education. 

The U.S. Department of Defense has funded the Indiana-Ohio Center for Traumatic Amputee Rehabilitation Research on the acute and long-term care of soldiers returning from war, of which we are a part. These veterans have injuries requiring amputation of major limbs and are often suffering from traumatic brain injuries as well. 

Our NIH National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research study evaluates coordination of care for adult brain injury patients from the time of injury through recovery and rehabilitation, including substance abuse and TBI.

Spinal Cord Injury (SCI)
Discoveries made through basic neural research can be translated to strategies for treating many diseases and traumas such as stroke and spinal cord injuries. Ohio State is one of just three NIH-designated Centers of Research Excellence in Spinal Cord Injury in the United States. The work done here offers real hope for someday initiating nerve regeneration and subsequent recovery of function for the patient. Currently in the rehabilitation program, we are studying new treatments for paralysis, as well as prevention and treatment of complications of SCI.

Stroke
Research has enabled us not just to better help stroke patients compensate for symptoms of their illness, but also has taught us how to actually change the brain and help it recover lost functions.

Many new programs within the rehabilitation program that have resulted from research findings include art and music therapy to offset post-stroke syndromes such as cognitive deficits, aphasia, neglect and depression; tai chi to improve balance problems; use of simple and complex electromyography to improve strength and gait; collaboration with neuro-optometrists and neuroscientists to evaluate and treat vision defects; and advanced functional brain imaging to examine and assess brain recovery.

Bone and mineral metabolism
We maintain a clinical center for the national Osteoarthritis Initiative (OAI), a seven-year, 5,000-subject project to collect data on the genesis and progress of osteoarthritis and to design disease standards that can facilitate development of drug therapies for this common disease. This is a collaboration with the OSU Division of Immunology.

Our research on the creation and loss of bone mass from adolescence through menopause is nationally and internationally recognized. At the Osteoporosis Prevention and Treatment Center, we are studying new treatments for bone weakness, osteoporosis as a complication of disabling illness, and the relationship of nutrition – and dairy foods vs. calcium supplementation – to bone mass.

For more information, view our recent research publications