Advanced Platform Technology Center

VA APT Researcher Receives Half Million Dollar Award

Kath Bogie, D.Phil., a Principal Investigator with the Advanced Platform Technology (APT) Center of Excellence at the Louis Stokes Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center (LSCVAMC) was recently awarded $561,850 from the Department of Defense (DOD). The award will fund research development of a personalized model for pressure ulcer prevention acutely following spinal cord injury, focusing on biomarkers of muscle composition and resilience.

Dr. Bogie’s award is directly funded by the DOD’s Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program. Dr. Bogie’s research will be a part of the Spinal Cord Injury Research Program (SCIRP). Initiated in 2009, this program underwrites research with the potential to make a significant impact on improving the health and well-being of military Service members, Veterans, and other individuals living with spinal cord injuries (SCI). Spinal cord injuries are serious and complex neurotraumatic wounds affecting military service members serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

If a soldier develops a pressure ulcer soon after suffering a spinal cord injury, the impact on the progress of initial rehabilitation can be devastating. Pressure ulcer development remains a highly significant source of morbidity for individuals with acute SCI. Prevention remains challenging and good risk assessment tools are not available.

“The central hypothesis to be tested is that muscle quality is a critical objective indicator of increased pressure ulcer susceptibility acutely following SCI,” says Dr. Bogie. “We have seen that persons with a history of severe or recurrent pressure ulcer have higher intramuscular fat infiltration. The detailed analysis of muscle characteristics and tissue health responses can provide personalized indication of risk status.”

During the study, Dr. Bogie’s team will monitor all incidences of tissue compromise or breakdown and apply model development, producing validated preliminary models for pressure ulcer risk prediction.

“Improved risk assessment for pressure ulcer development will positively impact each individual’s health status and quality of life,” she says. “This will also have a major impact on costs and clinical effort by enabling development of effective personalized pressure relief regimes for the most susceptible persons within the high-risk SCI population. We may even be able to test routinely
for pressure ulcer risk using a home-testing kit.”

Dr. Bogie’s team has experience with all the techniques to be employed in the proposed study. The timeline to achieve patient-related outcomes, i.e. application of personalized pressure relief regimes, may occur as early as during the second to third year of the proposed research for participants in the initial study cohort.

Dr. Bogie is a biomedical engineer with a background in translational research in tissue health, wound management and wheelchair seating. She holds a D.Phil. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Oxford.

About the APT Center:  The APT Center is one of 17 designated Centers of Excellence in the Rehabilitation Research and Development (RR&D) Service of the US Department of Veterans Affairs.  Established in 2005 as a collaboration between the LSCDVAMC and CWRU, the APT Center focuses on applying the most recent advancements in microelectronics, material science, microfabrication, wireless communication and mechanical design to the pressing medical needs of disabled veterans, and translating them into viable clinical options.  Investigators, project staff and support specialists associated with the Center concentrate their professional effort on translational research in the areas of: Prosthetics and Orthotics, Health Monitoring and Maintenance, Neural Interfacing, and Emerging Enabling Technologies. APT Center related activities have resulted in more than 60 invention disclosures and 15 patented or patent-pending concepts and prototypes that will serve the clinical needs of veterans with sensory, motor and cognitive deficits or limb loss.   For additional information about the APT Center, please follow the link: http://www.aptcenter.research.va.gov/