Smarter Measures, Better Trials
Building tools that capture meaningful change after stroke.
Rehabilitation research depends on accurate ways to measure change. Yet, many commonly used clinical scales were not designed to capture the subtle, real‑world improvements that matter most to stroke survivors. Items may perform differently across subpopulations, or scores may not translate to meaningful activity outside the clinic.
Our lab addresses this by developing sensitive, reliable, and ecologically valid outcome measures for upper‑extremity rehabilitation trials.
We take a three‑part approach:
We take a three‑part approach:
- Optimize clinical scales by refining existing tools so they better capture true change over time.
- Leverage wearables by transforming continuous data from wrist‑worn accelerometers into clinically meaningful metrics of arm use at home and in the community to measure engagement in activities that matter most to the patients.
- Integrate brain measures by validating EEG outcomes to understand how neural recovery tracks with functional gains.
By combining rigorous psychometrics, advanced analytics, and real‑world monitoring, our goal is to reduce clinical trial variability and improve detection of treatment effects in stroke rehabilitation trials. This work helps ensure that rehabilitation research reflects not only what patients can do in clinic, but also what they actually do in their daily lives.