VA rehabilitation scientist recognized for work with Veterans affected by upper-limb loss

WASHINGTON — Dr. Linda Resnik, a research career scientist with the Providence VA Medical Center (PVAMC) in Rhode Island, has been awarded the Paul B. Magnuson Award for her work with Veterans who have experienced upper-limb loss.

Resnik directed the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)-funded optimization study, which led to the approval of the Life Under Kinetic Evolution Arm for Veterans with upper-limb amputation, a revolutionary prosthetic device developed by DEKA Integrated Solutions Corporation and supported by grants from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

The device is the first computer-driven prosthetic arm capable of multiple, simultaneous movements.

“We need data to better understand the needs of people with upper-limb amputations and to assess their limitations in functioning…and the amputation rehabilitation care that they have received,” Resnik said in a 2016 VA Research Currents article.

She was also awarded a VA Rehabilitation Research and Development (RR&D) Research Career Scientist Award in 2014 and a VA New England Health Care System Network Director’s Integrity, Commitment, Advocacy, Respect and Excellence, or I CARE, award in 2017. Resnick is also professor of health services, policy and practice at Brown University Medical School in Providence.

She is also the director of a focus area concentrated on restoring limb function for the VA RR&D Center for Neurorestoration and Neurotechnology, a collaboration between PVAMC, Brown University and affiliated hospitals, whose researchers and clinicians are advancing neurotechnology to restore lost function.

Resnick is also director of the Multi-Institution Center on Health Services Training and Research. This center, funded by the Foundation for Physical Therapy, trains highly skilled physical therapists and health policy researchers as well as mentor both young and established investigators in research methods.

Established in 1998, the Paul B. Magnuson Award is presented annually to a VA RR&D investigator who exemplifies the entrepreneurship, humanitarianism and dedication to Veterans displayed by Dr. Paul B. Magnuson, a bone and joint surgeon, considered the architect of the VA health-care system as it is known today.

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