Rehabilitation Research & Development Service
Rehabilitation Research and Development Centers of Excellence
The Department of Veterans Affairs' Rehabilitation Research & Development's Centers of Excellence are the site of rehabilitation research that attracts the brightest minds from academia, industry, and medicine into the VA focused on finding research solutions to the needs of veterans with disabilities.
The following are the current Rehab R&D Centers of Excellence:
Center for Aging Veterans with Vision Loss — Atlanta, GA
The mission of the Atlanta VA Rehabilitation Research and Development Center is to improve the everyday function and quality of life of aging Veterans with vision loss and their caregivers.Center for Brain Rehabilitation Research — Gainsville, FL
The Brain Rehabilitation Research Center (BRRC), focuses on exciting research designed to improve the quality of life for individuals who have had a stroke, incomplete spinal cord injury or other neurological problems. The Center is funded by the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Rehabilitation Research & Development (RR&D).The Center for Exercise and Robotics for Neurological Disorders — Baltimore, MD
The VA Center for Excellence in Exercise and Robotics for Neurological Disorders is focused on identifying and testing exercise-related ways to improve function and minimize disability in the context of neurological illness.Center for Functional Electrical Stimulation — Cleveland, OH
The Cleveland FES Center strives to create a fertile environment in which researchers, engineers and clinicians work in collaboration to develop technological solutions that improve the quality of life of individuals with neruological or muscular skeletal impairments the through the use of functional electrical stimulation and enables the transfer of this technology into clinical deployment.Center for Innovative Visual Rehabilitation — Boston, MA
The goal of the Boston Retinal Implant Project is to develop a microelectronic retinal implant to restore vision to patients with age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa. Our implant design has unique features that improve its safety, function and performance. We are currently testing our implant design and as of yet, it is not commercially available.Center of Excellence for Limb Loss Prevention and Prosthetic Engineering — Seattle, WA
The mission of the Center is to provide broad based investigators the opportunity to conduct basic and clinical research and effectively disseminate their findings in an effort to impact the quality of life and functional status of veteran amputees and veterans who are at risk for amputation.Center for Medical Consequences of Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) — Bronx, NY
This research center is dedicated to identifying, intervening, and/or preventing the secondary medical consequences of SCI, which include respiratory compromise, gastrointestinal dysfunction, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, diabetes mellitus, pressure ulcers, and decreased strength and muscular function. Increased knowledge of the pathophysiology will lead to therapeutic interventions to reduce medical complications and improve quality of life for persons with SCI, a condition that affects more than 40,000 veterans nationwide.Center for Spinal Cord Injury and Multiple Sclerosis — West Haven, CT
The mission of the West Haven VA Rehabilitation Research and Development Center for Restoration of Function in Spinal Cord Injury and Multiple Sclerosis is to develop restorative therapies through the translation of basic research into the clinical realm.Center for Wheelchair and Related Technology — Pittsburgh, PA
The mission of this center is to continuously improve the mobility and function of people with disabilities through advanced engineering in clinical research and medical rehabilitationCenter of Excellence on Bone and Joint Rehabilitation — Palo Alto, CA
The VA Palo Alto Rehabilitation Research and Development Center reflects a long-standing commitment by the Department of Veterans Affairs to advance the well being of American veterans through support of a full spectrum of rehabilitation research, from concept to clinic.Cleveland Advanced Platform Technology (APT) Center — Cleveland, OH
The Cleveland Advanced Platform Technology (APT) Center develops advanced technologies that serve the clinical needs of veterans with motor and sensory deficits and limb loss to provide clinician-researchers within the VA with new tools for rehabilitation, treatment and scientific inquiry that lead to independence and enhanced societal participation.National Center for Rehabilitative Auditory Research (NCRAR) — Portland, OR
The mission of the NCRAR is to benefit veterans by alleviating the economic, social, and communicative problems resulting from auditory impairment. It is the only center dedicated to advancing the discovery of new knowledge about hearing impairments and to developing new technologies that optimize hearing health and care for veterans and the nation.Rehabilitation Outcomes Research Center — Gainesville, FL
The overall mission of the RORC is to enhance access, quality and efficiency of rehabilitation services through interdisciplinary research and dissemination activities.Center for Restorative and Regenerative Medicine — Providence, RI
The mission of the Center for Restorative and Regenerative Medicine is to improve function for individuals with traumatic limb loss by developing technologically-advanced techniques in tissue engineering, orthopaedics, neurotechnology, prosthetic design, and rehabilitation. These are complementary techniques that converge with one another in the concept of the biohybrid limb - comprised of both biological and non-biological materials - that enables us to envision solutions that transcend the limitations of biological tissue or prosthetic materials alone.VHA Centers Handbook