Hospital offers outpatient Locomotor Training to people with spinal cord injury; one of two facilities in nation to help launch CRPF NeuroRecovery Network

MT. LAUREL, N.J. – The Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation (CRPF) recently honored Magee Rehabilitation Hospital’s Locomotor Training Clinic with the NeuroRecovery Network Award at a fundraiser for spinal cord injury research called “A Step Toward Hope.” Magee received the award for helping contribute to developing the NeuroRecovery Network of the CRPF.

The Network aims to create a system of specialized centers designed to provide standardized care to people with spinal cord injuries and other selected neurological disorders based on current scientific and clinical evidence.

“We are honored to collaborate in the development of the NeuroRecovery Network and to continue working with the CRPF to enhance the lives of persons with spinal cord injuries,” says Mary Schmidt Read, PT, MS, Spinal Cord Injury Program Director and Coordinator of Research at Magee. “The Locomotor Training Clinic is an example of state-of-the-art therapy bridging the gap between research and clinical practice.”

A partner with Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in the Regional Spinal Cord Injury Center of Delaware Valley (RSCICDV) since 1978 – one of 16 such federally designated spinal cord injury model centers in the United States – Magee is one of two founding members of the CRPF NeuroRecovery Network in the nation. The NeuroRecovery Network’s initial therapy is Locomotor Training.

Magee recently expanded its Locomotor Training Clinic into its outpatient program. This therapy is based on current knowledge of how the brain and spinal cord control stepping and how the nervous system learns a motor skill.

Locomotor Training includes use of body weight supported treadmill training in which participants are placed in a parachute type harness attached to an overhead bar and positioned over a treadmill. Once the treadmill begins moving, therapists help individuals move their legs in a way that optimizes sensory inputs. This process helps individuals with certain types of neurologic dysfunction enhance their locomotor skills and eventually walking ability.

Magee previously participated in a five-year study of locomotor training supported by the National Institute of Health. For more information, please call (215) 587-3151.