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KANSAN.COM
ARTS & CULTURE
Dean's virtual reality technology helps stroke victims
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Abiodun Akinwuntan, right, dean of Health Professions at the University of Kansas Medical Center, helps neurologically-impaired people by creating a driving simulator to help them ease back into daily life. Miranda Anaya/KANSAN
▶ LIBBY FLOOD
@libbyflood13
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The dean of the School of Health Professions at the University of Kansas Medical Center has dedicated his career to helping neurologically-impaired patients return to their daily lives.
Abiodun Akinwuntan has developed virtual reality driving simulators designed to give stroke patients the chance to return to the road.
"I started to use driving simulators as a big coincidence," Akinwuntan said. "I was looking for the most effective way to be able to rehabilitate stroke patients who wished to go back to driving. I thought the best way to train driving was in a car but without the dangers of the public road."
In the process, he's become a virtual reality expert.
The rehabilitation program begins by evaluating the "motor, visual and cognitive" skills of patients, both through clinical testing and by placing them in the easiest program level to see which specific driving skills their neurological deficits have affected.
Akinwuntan came across a driving simulator and realized he had found the answer.
Once these skills are identified, Akinwuntan can program future sessions to challenge each of the affected skills. For each impaired skill, the patient goes through 10 to 15 progressively difficult sessions designed to restrengthen that ability.
Prior to his appointment as dean of the School of Health Professions, Akinwuntan was also the associate dean of research at the College of Allied Health Sciences at Augusta University in Augusta, Georgia — a Fulbright Foreign Scholar to Nigeria and a Fulbright Specialist to Iceland.
"After that, we're able to assess the success of the training by putting the patients back through the same initial assessment they did before the training program," Akinwuntan said.
Akinwuntan received a bachelor's degree in physical therapy from the University of Lagos in Nigeria, before moving to Europe for his postgraduate studies. He holds doctoral and master's degrees in neuromotor rehabilitation from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Catholic University of Leuven) in Belgium and a master's degree in public health and business administration from Augusta University.
Now, Akinwuntan is bringing the cutting-edge technology to the University. In addition to his role as dean, Akinwuntan is co-director of the Laboratory for Advanced Rehabilitation Research in Simulation (LARRS), located at the University Medical
The opportunity to bring his expertise home to Nigeria was "extremely fulfilling," Akinwuntan said. His job as a Fulbright Foreign Scholar was to improve Nigeria's physical therapy education with the goal of enhancing the rehabilitation of its neurologically impaired patients. Akinwuntan said he was happy to be part of this process in his home country.
Center's campus in Kansas City.
As a Fulbright Specialist in Akureyri, Iceland, Akinwuntan shared his simulation technology with international colleagues and taught classes at the University of Akureyri. The Fulbright Specialist program sends US scholars to serve as "expert consultants" in their field for institutions around the world.
Akinwuntan works closely with Hannes Devos, the director of LARRS.
Devos, an assistant professor in the Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science at the Medical Center, said LARRS uses various kinds of virtual reality in the rehabilitation of patients with neurological impairments. In addition to Akinwun-
tan's driving simulation, the lab features other visual and cognitive screening tools, including a virtual reality treadmill.
LARRS works with patients suffering from stroke, Parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis, but Akinwuntan said the simulations were most promising for stroke rehabilitation.
In addition to his roles at the University, Akinwun-
tan also serves as part of the four-person review committee for Fulbright applications to West and Central Africa. At the University, he will continue to work with LARRS to explore ways virtual reality can improve the process of neurological rehabilitation.
- Edited by Casey Brown
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KU UNIVERSITY THEATRE The University of Kansas
2017|2018 Season
Metamorphoses by Mary Zimmerman Open Call Auditions
Monday, April 24
Saturday, April
6 to 9 p.m.
354 Murphy
Sign up for an audition time at kutheatre.com. Please prepare two one-minute contrasting monolouges. Metamorphoses will run October 6-12. Rehearsal begins August 23.
Callbacks
Due to the ensemble-based nature of the show, Dr. Henry Bial will hold the callbacks as group workshops, for example calling 10-14 actors at a time for 75 to 90-minute blocks. The number of group sessions will depend on how many actors are called back.
Callbacks Tuesday, April 25 and Wednesday, April 26 6 to 9 p.m. 354 Murphy
Questions or concerns? Contact Katherine Pryor at kpyor@ku.edu.
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