Convergence of Medical Advances Brings Hope for SCI

Image credit: Griffith University 

It’s ground-breaking work helping people with spinal cord injury (SCI), with digital twin technology, thought-controlled cycling, brain-computer interfaces, virtual reality and pharmaceuticals all converging – and it’s happening in our own backyard.

From a Gold Coast team of Griffith University researchers comes BioSpine: digitally-powered, thought-controlled rehabilitation enabling people with SCI to “walk” in virtual reality.

The first person to experience the cutting-edge technology was Griffith University co-researcher Dr Dinesh Palipana, 14 years after a car accident paralysed him from the chest down.

It’s estimated that around 21,000 people in Australia are living with SCI, with up to 400 Australians added to that list each year.

Across the globe, this project and its allied research program continues to impress as one of the world’s first fully integrated bionic mobility solutions.

“[BioSpine is] not dissimilar to what you see in the movies; electrodes are placed on top of the scalp and we pick up the electrical activity from portions of the brain,” Griffith Centre for Biomedical and Rehabilitation Engineering researcher, Dr Claudio Pizzolato told the ABC in a recent interview.

“With our extensive research experience in modelling a simulation of the human body, we have the ability to recreate a digital version of the user and create simulations in real time.”

Check out the latest press coverage on this exciting discovery, or for further background listen to an interview with the ABC’s Richard Fidler and Dr Dinesh Palipana which first aired in 2018.