Craig Hospital recently announced that it has joined the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation NeuroRecovery Network (NRN). According to a release from Craig Hospital, the NRN is a national network comprised of eight rehabilitation centers designed to provide and develop therapies to promote functional recovery and improve the health and quality of life for individuals living with paralysis. Craig is now the seventh rehabilitation center that makes up the NRN. An eighth-NRN site is also based in Canada.
The release reports the NRN offers locomotor training, an intensive, activity-based therapy intended to retrain the nervous system by stimulating stepping and walking for patients with spinal cord injury (SCI).
Susan Howley, executive vice president of research, the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, outlines the benefits of locomotor training, stating that the research indicates locomotor training “is beneficial to people living with spinal cord injury, even those who have been injured for quite some time,” Howley explains.
Each NRN center features a group of professionals and clinicians with specialized training in delivering this type of locomotor training. The staff encompasses physical therapists, rehab technicians, directors, physicians, and data managers. Craig states that it will start enrolling patients immediately.
Candy Tefertiller, director of physical therapy, Craig Hospital, emphasizes the facility’s excitement in joining the NRN with the aim of extending the continuum of care for Craig’s patients. “We are also honored to join a network of other highly respected professionals who are working to advance spinal cord injury clinical treatment and research,” Tefertiller says.
For more information about enrollment criteria, contact [email protected].
[Source: Craig Hospital]