Rodney F. Ganey, Ph.D. Faculty Community-Based Research Award: Center for Social Concerns

Nominees should be regular faculty (as described below) who have completed at least one research project that contributes to resolving a social challenge within South Bend or the surrounding area.

Greater consideration will be given if the community-based research project or projects for which the individual is nominated:

address a question raised by a community group or organization;
involve collaboration with a local group or organization;
include graduate and/or undergraduate students.

In addition, the nominee should have a record of publication in his/her field, or other forms of evidence of work valued in his/her area of expertise (juried exhibitions, distributed films, etc.).

The nominator should submit a letter describing how one research project, or a representative project from a larger body of work, has affected the South Bend area and Notre Dame students. Nominators may include Notre Dame faculty, students, and staff, or individuals not affiliated with Notre Dame.

Nominees should be regular faculty (teaching-and-research faculty, research faculty, library faculty, and special professional faculty) or emeritus faculty. Individuals may nominate themselves.

Questions or comments about the award, please contact Mary Beckman.

* Regular Faculty includes Teaching-and-Research Faculty, Research Faculty, Library Faculty, and Special Professional Faculty, as described in the Faculty Handbook. Faculty holding emeritus status may be nominated.

Rodney Ganey, Ph.D., who is funding this award, served as Associate Director of Notre Dame's Laboratory for Social Research and as a Concurrent Faculty member in the Department of Sociology from 1980 to 1996. During that time, he encouraged community-based research initiatives of fellow Faculty members and graduate students in many ways. Ganey is founder of Press, Ganey Associates, the nation's leading research firm specializing in patient-satisfaction measurement. This award is one element of an initiative in community-based research through the Center for Social Concerns that Dr. Ganey has established as a way of deepening the university's stated commitment to place learning at the service of society.

2012 AWARD RECIPIENT

JAMES SCHMIEDELER

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More than 60 individuals in the local area have already benefited from a new technological innovation developed through a collaboration between Dr. James Schmiedeler and his Notre Dame colleagues and the therapy staff at Memorial Hospital. That innovation is called “WeHab” and uses the Nintendo WiiFit platform to assist individuals who, as a result of strokes, accidents, or illness, experience weakness, paralysis, or impairments in balance and mobility.

The WeHab Balance Rehabilitation System that has resulted from Professor Schmiedeler’s efforts is an innovative, low-cost tool for providing biofeedback and data monitoring during balance therapy. The WeHab system facilitates common rehab activities and measures patient performance in real-time. In the clinic, it helps therapists improve rehab efficacy and objectively assess patient progress without taking time away from rehab activities. Once patients go home, the low cost makes individual access affordable; the WeHab system can provide biofeedback during prescribed at-home activities and monitor patient compliance through progress reports.

The results of the work done are currently in use in Memorial Hospital’s inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation setting. As development progresses, the product will become available on a commercial basis, and other healthcare facilities will be able to use the application at their sites. A significant opportunity will be available for private use clients, thus increasing the penetration of the product into this and other communities.

According to Schmiedeler’s Notre Dame colleague and co-investigator Charles Crowell, “WeHab has the potential to revolutionize stroke therapy for patients, both in the clinic and at home ... The utility of this technology may be extended to other rehabilitation domains involving orthopedic problems resulting from injuries, amputations, or aging,

applications that currently are being explored.”

Crowell notes, “Professor Schmiedeler’s groundbreaking work on WeHab has set the stage for a truly impactful and widespread rehabilitation service, not just for our local community, but also for communities all around the world."