– SoldierStrong donates a spinal cord rehab exoskeleton that enables individualized gait therapy for patients with lower extremity weakness or paralysis to VA Boston Healthcare System, West Roxbury Campus.
– The donation will provide VA Boston with device options for their Veterans who meet the medical clearance and FDA criteria to allow for robotic-assisted ambulation post spinal cord injury.
SoldierStrong, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to providing revolutionary medical technologies to help injured Veterans lead full lives announced it is donating an Indego Therapy exoskeleton to VA Boston Healthcare System, West Roxbury Campus today. Indego® Therapy enables individualized gait therapy for patients with lower extremity weakness or paralysis (such as complete/incomplete spinal cord injury and stroke)
Indego Therapy: Lower-Limb Powered Exoskeleton
Indego is a powered exoskeleton worn around the waist and legs which allows therapists to offer over-ground gait therapy. The Indego® orthopedically fits the lower limbs and the trunk; the device is intended to enable individuals with spinal cord injury at levels T3 to L5 to perform ambulatory functions with the supervision of a specially trained companion in accordance with the user assessment and training certification program. The device is also intended to enable individuals with spinal cord injury at levels C7 to L5 to perform ambulatory functions in rehabilitation institutions in accordance with the user assessment and training certification program.
Finally, the Indego® is also intended to enable individuals with hemiplegia (with motor function of 4/5 in at least one upper extremity) due to the cerebrovascular accident (CVA) to perform ambulatory functions in rehabilitation institutions in accordance with the user assessment and training certification program.
Therapy Software
The Therapy+ software suite, included with each Indego Therapy device, incorporates control algorithms based on proven motor learning principles and allows for an individualized, patient-centric training approach where the device responds to a patient’s active contribution and assists in gait only when necessary. Additionally, therapists have a range of customizable settings within the Therapy+ software suite which allows them to further tailor the behavior of the system to specific impairment and gait needs.
Donation Reflects Massachusetts’ Large Veteran & Military Personnel
SoldierStrong co-founder Chris Meek said the state’s concentration of military personnel and veterans was a factor in the donation. “There are more than 383,000 veterans in Massachusetts alone and almost one-fourth of them rely on some type of medical care from the VA, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The VA and its staff are dedicated to providing the best care to those veterans, but it’s important that groups like SoldierStrong stand with them to achieve that mission,” Meek said. “With advanced medical technology and expertise saving more and more servicemen and women who suffer severe injuries – especially on the battlefield – there’s an ever-growing need for exoskeletons and similar devices to make rehabilitation as effective as possible. We’re extremely proud to help as many veterans as we can so that they will experience the physical and emotional benefits of standing and walking again.”
Since SoldierStrong’s inception after 9/11, the Stamford, Conn.-based group has donated more than $3 million of medical devices to help injured veterans. Today’s donation is the organization’s 23rd exoskeleton donation and the second for VA Boston.
