Abstract

The precise and comprehensive evaluation of impairment after spinal cord injury (SCI) is a central component in the emerging landscape of precision rehabilitation. This talk will highlight the role of new technologies in expanding the scope of functional and physiological measurement, with a particular focus on solutions made possible by artificial intelligence. I will emphasize the broad scope of activities at KITE's Neural Engineering and Therapeutics team by drawing examples from both human studies involving the measurement of hand use at home after SCI, and pre-clinical work on closed-loop implantable functional electrical stimulation systems.

Biography

Dr. José Zariffa is a Senior Scientist at the Kite Research Institute, Toronto Rehab, University Health Network, and an Associate Professor at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto. His research interests focus on neuroprosthetics and technology for upper limb neurorehabilitation, encompassing work in wearable sensors, neural interfaces, electrophysiology, and machine learning. Dr. Zariffa's team was awarded the Grand Prize in the Spinal Cord Rehab Innovation Challenge, a national competition focused on new tools to measure rehab activities and their impact.