Noel Keijsers. Senior researcher at the Sint Maartenskliniek. Professor clinical motor control at the Donders center for cognition of the Radboud University
His field of expertise can be summarized as experimental research on human motor control and biomechanics in patients with motor disabilities. He has worked with a large variety of patient types such as stroke, spinal cord injury, Parkinson’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis, amputees, and orthopedic patients. Most of his research has an applied clinical character and is conducted in close collaboration with medical specialists such as rehabilitation specialist, orthopedic surgeons and neurologists. Many of his projects focus on gaining knowledge into the mechanism of adaptation and compensation after neurological adaptation and applying this knowledge to a clinical setting. Another topic is evaluation and implementation of new interventions and new devices such as Brain computer interface in rehabilitation, robotic gait trainer and wearable robotic exoskeletons.
Topic: Wearable robotics in patients with neurological disorders.
Many people with neurological disorders (e.g. stroke, spinal cord injury, cerebral palsy) suffer from balance and gait impairments. In the (sub)acute phase, most training is focused on regaining gait capacity. Despite all the effort regularly put in regaining gait capacity by training and other treatment (e.g. surgery), the gait and standing capacity of many people with neurological disorders remains limited. For performing activities of daily living, they often require the use of an assistive device. Recently, robotic devices such as lower-extremity wearable exoskeletons and powered ankle-foot orthoses have undergone enormous progress in design and control. Nevertheless, wearable exoskeleton use in daily life is still very limited. The presentation will focus on requirements for wearable exoskeletons from a patient perspective.
