New treatments and medications for traumatic spinal cord and brain injury are the goal of a major research partnership announced yesterday between the University of Kentucky and Cardinal Hill Rehabilitation Hospital.
UK, the region's trauma center, and Cardinal Hill, a nationally known rehabilitation hospital, have long been partners in the clinical setting. About 58 percent of all Cardinal Hill's traumatic spinal cord injury admissions are referred from UK.
UK medical students and residents, as well as student nurses and therapists, get rehabilitation and physical medicine training at Cardinal Hill.
But research cooperation between the two entities has been sparse -- something the new initiative intends to address.
Five years ago, Cardinal Hill gave the University of Kentucky $2 million toward creating a research partnership. That was matched later by $2 million from the Kentucky Research Challenge Trust Fund.
"The question was, what can we do to move beyond what we currently do?" said Kerry Gillihan, president and chief executive officer at Cardinal Hill. "We think it's research -- significant research."
Yesterday, UK and Cardinal Hill announced that UK spinal cord injury researcher Joe Springer will be the Cardinal Hill endowed chair of neurorehabilitation research, tasked with leading the collaboration. Recruitment of two research professors for the project also is under way.
"I know how Neil Armstrong felt," said Dr. Gerald Klim, chair of UK's Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. "Today's our giant leap."
"This helps both institutions move to a different level," said Dr. Michael Karpf, UK's executive vice president of health affairs. "This will be changing what the standard of care is in the future. ... The kind of science we're likely to develop will have benefits on the national level."
Springer said his main objective is to lead what is known as translational research, "taking new discoveries and new technology and taking them to the bedside."
"I think it's going to be great to bridge the patients with the research," said Ben Brown, 22, of Winchester, who attended the announcement. Brown was injured in a 2002 motorcycle accident while serving in the U.S. Navy in Italy. A Paraplegic, he was an inpatient for six weeks at Cardinal Hill and still gets periodic checkups there.
"With all the research that's going on right now, there's gonna be a cure," Brown said. "The more people who get involved, the faster it's going to be."
New treatments and medications for traumatic spinal cord and brain injury are the goal of a major research partnership announced yesterday between the University of Kentucky and Cardinal Hill