History
Established in 1991, the Center focuses on the application of electrical currents to either generate or suppress activity in the nervous system. This technique is known as functional electrical stimulation (FES). FES can produce and control the movement of otherwise paralyzed limbs for standing and hand grasp, activate visceral bodily functions such as bladder control or respiration, create perceptions such as skin sensibility, arrest undesired activity such as pain or spasm, and facilitate natural recovery and accelerate motor relearning.
The Functional Electrical Stimulation Center was founded to introduce FES into clinical practice, translating fundamental knowledge of electrical stimulation of paralyzed nerves and muscles into useful systems that enhanced the independence and quality of life for people with disabilities.
For over three decades, researchers and clinicians of the Cleveland FES Center have impacted virtually every aspect of implanted functional electrical stimulation as leaders in the development of the science and technology of neural activation and its clinical application. In 2003, the Center expanded its areas of expertise in cortical control, implantable systems and electrode technology.
The Center is funded by a Center of Excellence award from the Department of Veterans Affairs and individual grant support.
Read more about this topic: Cleveland FES Center
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Anyone who is practically acquainted with scientific work is aware that those who refuse to go beyond fact rarely get as far as fact; and anyone who has studied the history of science knows that almost every great step therein has been made by the “anticipation of Nature.””
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“What you don’t understand is that it is possible to be an atheist, it is possible not to know if God exists or why He should, and yet to believe that man does not live in a state of nature but in history, and that history as we know it now began with Christ, it was founded by Him on the Gospels.”
—Boris Pasternak (1890–1960)
“It takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature.”
—Henry James (1843–1916)