The National Center for Rehabilitation Engineering (NCRE)

Nan Davis, who is paralyzed below the waist, walks with canes in the biomedical engineering laboratories at Wright State University's National Center fore Rehabilitation Engineering. She walks using a computerized electrical stimulation-feedback control system, developed at WSU by Dr. Jerrold Petrofsky.

The National Center for Rehabilitation Engineering (NCRE) was a research and rehabilitation facility aimed at improving the quality of life of people with paralysis by focusing on experiments with Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES). In collaboration with Dr. Paul Kezdi (Medical Director, NCRE, Director of Cox Heart Institute, Professor of Medicine, WSU), and Dr. Chandler Phillips (Deputy Director of NCRE, Professor of Engineering, WSU), and Dr. Roger M. Glaser (Professor of Physiology and pioneer in wheelchair design), Dr. Petrofsky developed computerized electrical stimulation-feedback systems that replace the brain commands that control movement. These systems help paraplegics and quadriplegics to exercise paralyzed limbs, pedal a stationary bicycle and outdoor tricycle and take steps in walking experiments. The hand-control systems help quadriplegics use their hands more effectively.
The Jerrold S. Petrofsky, Ph.D. Papers consist of miscellaneous files of this prominent scientist and professor in the Physiology Department (later renamed Biomedical Engineering as well as Rehabilitation Medicine and Restorative Care-a matrix department of the School of Medicine and the College of Science and Mathematics) at Wright State University from 1979 to 1987. The collection is mainly made up of various scholarly papers and audio-visual documentation sources such as tapes, slide, photos, and scrapbooks detailing his experiments with paraplegics and quadriplegics in conjunction with the Wright State University National Center for Rehabilitation Engineering (NCRE). It also includes limited business correspondence and a large number of newspaper and magazine clippings covering the impact of Dr. Petrofsky’s contribution to paralysis research, particularly during his tenure at a WSU.

This collection details the interest, projects and achievements of Dr. Petrofsky as a scientist during the above mentioned period. The NCRE material offers valuable information on the role of the NCRE in rehabilitation research while Dr. Petrofsky’s scientific papers reveal his personal contribution to its research programs and in particular to Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) research.

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