I CAN! Research
Research and Education are integrated into each of these clinical service delivery streams involving Queensland, Australian and overseas Centres of Excellence as well.
Education
Education includes courses and degrees for health professionals, disability workers, carers and families and patients. It integrates with the training of medical and nursing students as well as graduate doctors, specialists in training and doctors and specialists in practice. As well as providing courses and degrees for allied health. ICAN! is established as the first College of Disability Medicine in the Southern Hemisphere.
Learn more about our PATH program
the stages
Stage 1
Patients will arrive at the training facility to have a virtual reality experience driven by electroencephalogram (EEG) in the seated position. The EEG will drive a VR avatar from a first person perspective whilst the patient wears a headset. The goal is to for the patient to think about walking and cause the avatar to walk, aimed to prime the motor cortex of the patient. After 90 minutes in VR, the patient will receive electrical stimulation over the skin on the lower spine while in the left decubitus position.
Stage 2
Replicates stage one with patient placed in suspended upright position.
Stage 3
Interventions will be the same as above instead patients will have body weight supported treadmill exoskeleton driven locomotor training.
Stage 4
If eventually the patient is able to support 25% or more of their body weight during treadmill locomotor training without knee collapse, over-ground locomotor training will commence.
Stage 5
Stage five will start if the patient is eventually able to support 50% of their body weight during over-ground locomotor training without knee collapse. This stage includes EEG-controlled exoskeleton locomotor training.
Research focus
Research will be a strong focus integrating the following streams into the clinical services:
NEUROPLASTICITY
Neuropharmacology and Neurotherapeutics
Neurodiagnostics and Rare Diseases
Neurogenetics
Genomics
Neuropsychiatry and Behavioural Neurology
Neuroimaging
