MetroHealth 2025 Research Highlights: Breakthroughs in Rehab and Recovery
Discover MetroHealth’s 2025 research highlights, advancing spinal cord injury diagnosis, treatment, and recovery through innovative clinical research.
MetroHealth researchers advance diagnostic and treatment strategies to improve the lives of people with spinal cord injury (SCI). Despite a challenging funding environment, support for our clinical research efforts remained strong. In 2025, our teams made measurable contributions in SCI research, translated discoveries into clinical care, and shared their findings nationally and internationally. The highlights below reflect this work.
Enhancing the Health and Well-Being of People with SCI
Principal Investigators (PIs): Anne Bryden, PhD, OTR/L
The team developed an I-SSTIM prototype to assess lower motor neuron integrity after SCI.
Improving Hand Function After Stroke
Researchers completed and published the largest multi-site randomized controlled trial (n=132) of contralaterally controlled functional electrical stimulation (CCFES), featured in Stroke.
Restoring Bladder Function After SCI
Dr. Bourbeau achieved the first-in-human use of sacral nerve stimulation to enable bladder emptying without catheterization or selective dorsal rhizotomy.
Restoring Breathing and Cough After High Spinal Cord Injuries
PIs: Tony DiMarco, PhD and Kris Kowalski, PhD
In collaboration with Avery Biomedical Devices, Inc., the team developed a novel cough stimulation system for people with SCI. Additionally, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted an investigational device exemption (IDE) for a multicenter study.
Restoring Hand and Arm Function after SCI
The FDA approved an IDE to evaluate novel electrodes for the Keygrip System in clinical trials.
Relieving Pain with Electrical Stimulation
PIs: Gustaf Van Acker, MD, PhD and Chong Kim, MD
A study comparing ventral and dorsal spinal cord stimulation for pain relief enrolled its first participants.
Using a Robotic Arm to Assist Activities of Daily Living after SCI
Researchers conducted the first in-hospital trial of a semi-autonomous robotic feeding system for people with SCI.
Walking After SCI and Stroke (Two Studies)
PIs: James Sulzer, PhD and Nathan Makowski, PhD
The FDA approved an IDE for the Networked Neuroprosthesis System for walking after SCI. A second study on gait impairments after stroke reached its enrollment target of 54 participants.