Welcome to the Indiana Center for Rehabilitation Sciences & Engineering Research (ICRSER).

In the U.S. health care costs and lost wages for people with disabling conditions far exceed $300 billion per year. Indiana residents, employers and insurers share significant portions of these costs, both in terms of dollars spent and in reduced quality of life.

Large amounts of federal and private grants and contracts are available to support research and practice to improve the treatment of mobility disablement and to accelerate rehabilitation and return to work. The federal government alone awards at least $450 million annually for rehabilitation sciences and engineering research. Indiana, however, received only $45,000 of that research funding in 2002, primarily because the state lacks a research and development system in this new multidisciplinary field.

Our vision is to create a world-class research and infrastructure to leverage Indiana's very significant scientific, educational and corporate entities in the rehabilitation arena to capture a large share of available R&D funding, while simultaneously stimulating Indiana's life sciences economy and improving workforce development.

The ICRSER is a permanent collaboration among strategic partners whose combined expertise in science, engineering, technology and health care will create a powerful, focused infrastructure in Indiana to acquire grants and contracts for research and application in the arena of rehabilitation, to strengthen Indiana's world-class orthopedic industry, and to improve quality of life and employability of people who suffer from disabling conditions related to mobility.

Founding partners include Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis, the Rehabilitation Hospital of Indiana, the Indiana University Foundation, the Richard L. Roudebush Veterans Affairs Medical Center and corporate partners ViovMetrics, Inc. and Robot One, Inc. Affiliates committed to participation include Purdue Discovery Park and Ball State University's Human Performance Laboratory.

The mission of the ICRSER is to conduct rehabilitation science and engineering research using private and public collaborations for the purpose of improving mobility of persons with current or potential disabilities and increasing economic opportunities for the state of Indiana and better quality of life for individuals.

The mission statement represents the consensus of more than 70 potential stakeholders who met in February to craft a plan for this collaboration. Participants included faculty, administrators, health care professionals, corporate leaders, former patients of the Rehabilitation Hospital of Indiana, BioCrossroad initiative leaders, potential donors and other university and community leaders.

We're very excited about the future of the Indiana Center for Rehabilitation Sciences & Engineering Research. We invite you to join us in Advancing Indiana.

Cheers,
Dr. Neil Oldridge
noldridg@iupui.edu
317.274.4879