Advanced Platform Technology Center

The WhIRRL group studies how lower limb injuries occur during wheelchair use and develops technology to reduce their occurrence and improve quality of life for wheelchair users.

Individuals with spinal cord injuries or other neurological diseases rely on wheelchairs for mobility and participation in daily activities to maintain quality of life. However, these and other wheelchair users who cannot see or feel their feet or control their leg position are at significant risk for lower limb injuries during regular wheelchair use.

We have observed multiple types of injuries, such as bruises, abrasions, and fractures, occurring when lower extremities lose contact with the footplate. Additionally, any injuries that require hospitalization then expose the person to complications such as infection, pressure injuries from lack of movement during recovery and even amputation.

Our focus is helping wheelchair users with sensorimotor losses prevent these types of injuries and maintain their increased mobility and independence.

To this end, our team invented and patented a pressure and position sensing system for wheelchair footplates (see prototype below) which we are using to study this problem.

Currently we are working on understanding these types of injuries through multiple approaches.

1. Meeting with groups of people with SCI/D, family/caregivers, and seating specialists to understand how they think these injuries occur and what could be done to prevent them.
2. Using the foot pressure and position sensor to record how the feet move on the footplates during wheelchair mobility.
3. Using Motion Capture technology to study how the legs and feet of paralyzed people move compared to those of non-paralyzed people during power wheelchair use.
4. Develop foot displacement detection algorithms by processing our footplate sensor and/or motion capture data using the power of machine learning and network science.

Our long-term future goal is to be able to notify users when their limb is at risk of traumatic injury.

Dr. M. Kristi Henzel is the leader of WhIRRL and Principal Investigator on our funded grants. Dr. Henzel is Assistant Chief with the Spinal Cord Injuries and Disorders service at the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center and Associate Professor at Case Western Reserve University. Her clinical practice include care for Veterans with acute and chronic SCI including many who suffer the consequences of injuries occurring when the Veteran’s foot is mispositioned on the power wheelchair footplate, such as chronic wounds. Dr. Henzel recognized the critical clinical need for wheelchair injury prevention and is the primary inventor of our current prototype.

Dr. Kath Bogie is a Rehabilitation Research and Development Service Research Career Scientist and Professor in the Depts. of Orthopedics and Biomedical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University and co-Principal Investigator on WhIRRL’s funded grants. Dr. Bogie is a Co-Inventor of our current prototype and a biomedical engineer with a background in translational research in tissue health, wound management and wheelchair seating, and success in translating interventions from research into clinical applications.

Dr. Steve Majerus is an APTC investigator and Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University with expertise in integrated circuit design, wireless telemetry circuitry and wearable electronics for long-term data collection in clinical settings, as well as microsystem assembly and packaging. Dr. Majerus is a Co-Inventor and led development and testing of current prototype technology.

Dr. Kevin S. Xu is an electrical engineer and computer scientist appointed as an Assistant Professor in the Case Western Reserve University Department of Computer and Data Sciences. Dr. Xu’s expertise is in building data-driven models of complex systems, and he will lead the development of machine learning algorithms and data analysis for detecting foot displacements from the wheelchair footplates.

Dr. Sandra Hnat is a Research Associate in the Advanced Platform Technology Center with expertise in biomechanics and the use of motion capture technology. Dr. Hnat leads the digital motion capture team to detect lower limb movements during power wheelchair mobility in the lab and community.

Dr. Tamara Vos-Draper is a rehabilitation scientist and Mixed Methods Specialist with the Rehabilitation & Engineering Center for Optimizing Veteran Engagement & Reintegration (RECOVER) Center at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center. Dr. Vos-Draper has a deep clinical background in the areas of spinal cord injury and disorders, wheelchair seating and mobility, and assistive technology. She utilizes qualitative research techniques to understand and facilitate self-management of secondary conditions by wheelchair users.

Mr. Steven Mitchell is a Clinical Specialist in Seating/ Wheeled Mobility and Assistive Technology with the Spinal Cord Injuries and Disorders service at the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center. His clinical practice includes care for Veterans with acute and SCI, Multiple Sclerosis and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and specializes in creating innovating complex rehab seating solutions to meet the mobility needs of his clients. He was the first on our team to recognize the injuries occurring after the patient’s foot is mispositioned on the power wheelchair footplate and is a Co-Inventor of the current prototype.

Mr. Sean Ferry is a quality analyst and Vice-President of the Keystone Chapter of the Paralyzed Veterans of America.  Mr. Ferry is a Consumer Advocate on the WhIRRL team and multiple other research studies.

Mr. Robert Morris is a retired ceramics engineer and Treasurer of the Buckeye Chapter of the Paralyzed Veterans of America.  He is also a Consumer Advocate on the WhIRRL team.

• Kayleigh Antonelli, DO
• Daniel Barbaro, BS
• Cody Dulaney, PhD
• Lisa Leonhardt, BS, PTA
• George Marzloff, MD
• Tyler Singer, PhD
• Jeremiah Ukwela, BS, MS
• Maureen Whitford, PhD, PT
• Jennifer Zindle, BS, MHA

Paralyzed Veterans of America Research Foundation

• Device Development Grant: Insensate and Unprotected: Development & testing of FootSafe technology for prevention of injuries caused by inadvertent lower extremity displacements from wheelchair footplates in Veterans with SCI/D. 2023-2025

VHA Rehabilitation Research and Development

• Merit Review: Toward understanding mechanisms of inadvertent lower extremity displacements from wheelchair footplates in Veterans with SCI/D: Multi-modal evaluation of leg movements during power wheelchair use. 2024-2028

• Bogie KM, Henzel MK, Majerus SJ, Mitchell SJ. Smart foot position sensor for power wheelchair users, and systems and methods of using same. US patent 11,083,652. Issued August 10, 2021. European patent EP3606490. Issued August 9, 2023.