Anna Good’s cerebral palsy makes walking a challenge. But robot-assisted walks at Riley Hospital for Children’s new Robotic Rehabilitation Center could improve the 6-year-old’s balance and gait.
Decked out in pink, Anna wore a determined-looking smile Wednesday as the whirling arms of the robot turned her legs in a walking motion. The therapy is intended to help her form the connections between her legs and mind that could help her walk better.
Leaders of the new Riley center, which officially opens today, say the interactive robots hold the potential to help children with movement disorders improve motor functions such as walking and using their arms and hands.
The center — a collaboration involving Riley, the Indiana University Department of Physical Therapy and Clarian Health Rehabilitation Services — is the first facility in Indiana focused on robotic therapy for children.
Pediatric robotic therapy is available elsewhere in the Midwest, including the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. But the new Riley center provides many Indiana children with cerebral palsy the opportunity to receive therapy closer to home and possibly avoid waiting lists.
Robotic therapy has long been used on adults such as stroke patients but is increasingly being used to help children with conditions such as cerebral palsy or traumatic brain injuries.
“You’re reprogramming the brain,” said Dr. Greg Wilson, co-director of the new robotic center and a developmental pediatrician at Riley. “It’s very similar to what therapists have been doing for a long time, but this is a great new tool for them.”
Wilson said the center’s two robots — one for upper extremities and another for lower — help therapists precisely measure a child’s strengths and weaknesses to better tailor therapy. He added that a preliminary study of robotic therapy on children showed a 20 percent to 33 percent improvement in gait and walking.
The new center could help many children. About 8,000 babies are diagnosed with cerebral palsy each year in the United States, according to the advocacy group United Cerebral Palsy.
Susie Good, Anna’s mother, said she is on the list for her daughter to receive treatment in Chicago, but that the wait could be six months. Now, Anna, who lives in West Lafayette, is one of the first patients receiving therapy at the new Riley center, which is in the Rotary Building near the Riley Outpatient Center.
Anna already seems familiar with the routine. She makes jokes with physical therapist Ryan Cardinal and remarks that she’s been on the robot-assisted treadmill 50 times.
“It’s kind of boring,” Anna said.
Anna’s actually used the robot closer to 10 times — although each treatment session is packed full of activity, including an involved process of getting into and out of a harness.
Mom, though, has specific hopes for how the robot may help Anna. Good said her daughter tends not to bend her knees when she walks. “We’re hoping that this is going to help and force her to bend her knees more,” she said.
The center paid about $370,000 for the robot focused on lower extremities and $140,000 for the one focused on upper extremities. Much of the funding for the new center has come from the local Robots to the Rescue Foundation. The center also uses computerized motion analysis.
Riley said Indiana’s Medicaid program, which provides health coverage for needy children, has agreed to pay for pediatric robot therapy. Wilson added that commercial insurers have covered pediatric robotic therapy at other facilities.
