The Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan (RIM), Detroit Medical Center/Wayne State University has established a SCI Neurorecovery Center (www.centerforscirecovery.org.) Basically, the Center’s overall objective is to foster the development of function-restoring therapies through establishing bridge-building collaborations with scientists throughout the world.

Although the Center may face challenges as it evolves, it has the right vision for the future, a vision focused on what is possible after SCI and not the limitations of prevailing past assumptions. This vision is founded on the belief that if we can open-mindedly integrate the divergent pieces of the puzzle that exist throughout the world - whether they originate in the US, China, Portugal, etc. or whether they reflect divergent healing paradigms - restoration of function is a real world possibility now and not just some distant pie-in-the-sky possibility.

As consequence of this expanded vision of what is possible after SCI, the Center recognizes the need to concomitantly develop aggressive physical therapy programs that will maximize restored function. Although only a small amount of functional neurons are needed to regain significant function, such recovery will do little good unless atrophied muscles are built up again to do some work.

Several key individuals were instrumental in the Center’s creation, including Fred Nader, RIM Board of Directors; Steve Hinderer, Interim Chair, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation; and Edward Nieshoff, Director, SCI Clinical Research. Given that Nader’s daughter and Nieshoff are both quadriplegics, the Center’s vision reflects an important attunement to the SCI community, which, in turn, translates into an open-minded receptivity to innovative therapeutic approaches.

The advocacy efforts of parents often greatly push the field forward. This is the case with Nader, who, after his daughter was injured in an automobile accident, was forced, like many parents, to bone up on SCI. In his case, however, as a technology-assessment expert, he had the big-picture ability to analyze the state of SCI science with respect to functional recovery. He soon realized that many of the most promising therapies are emerging elsewhere in the world. If such therapies are to benefit Americans, bridge-building collaborations needed to be established.

RIM has begun to establish such collaborations, including several with scientists featured elsewhere on this site.  For example, Dr. Carlos Lima (Lisbon, Portugal), who transplants olfactory tissue into the SCI injury site; Dr. Shaocheng Zhang (Shanghai, China), who reroutes a peripheral nerve around the injury site; and Dr. Hongyun Huang (Beijing, China), who injects fetal olfactory-bulb tissue into the spinal cord, have all presented their pioneering, function-restoring work at RIM. 

In another example, which demonstrates an open-mindedness to divergent healing approaches, collaborations are being considered to further evaluate the potential SCI benefits of Diapulse-generated pulsed electromagnetic fields. Polish studies suggest that these fields may enhance functional recovery after acute SCI, and, as such, may be a useful adjunct therapy for promoting regeneration when used in conjunction with some of these innovative surgical interventions.

The RIM press conference specifically featured Huang and one of his patients, Robert Smith, a Michigan quadriplegic who recovered some sensory and motor function after traveling to China for Huang’s procedure. According to Huang, thousands of people are on a waiting list for his function-restoring surgery. Unless we develop bridge-building, knowledge-disseminating programs, such as RIM is doing, few Americans with SCI will be able to benefit from such innovation.

In discussing these innovative therapies, however, it is important to note that the Center’s primary objective is not to promote them per se but to create the professional collaborative arrangements that will facilitate collection of the scientific data needed to evaluate them objectively pursuant to our country’s stringent regulatory policy.

In conclusion, in a recent interview in The New Yorker magazine (November, 10, 2003), Christopher Reeve noted, while discussing the progress being made by foreign SCI scientists, “We are rapidly falling behind other countries.” Our falling behind can be attributed to many reasons, including the fact that our scientific system is more suited to foster incremental progress than to accommodate the quantum leaps forward represented by the innovative procedures being developed elsewhere.

Through the creation of the SCI Neurorecovery Center, RIM recognizes we have become a global community in which progress will be catalyzed by synergistically working together and not in isolation. Its mission is driven by commitments to both patient advocacy and scientific rigor, with a goal of expediting the recovery of people with SCI in the short term, rather than years in the future. It is a commendable endeavor.

For further information, contact www.centerforscirecovery.org.

Adapted from an article appearing in Paraplegia News, February, 2004 (For subscriptions, contact www.pn-magazine.com).