Dr. Peter Cripton recently secured a $2.3 Million Dollar Grant funded by the United States Department of Defense CDMRP

Dr. Peter Cripton, Associate Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department, Patrick Campbell Chair in Mechanical Design and Principle Investigator at the spinal cord research centre ICORD at UBC, has recently received a $2.3million dollar grant funded by the United States Department of Defense Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (CDMRP). The “Applied Research and Advanced Technology Development Award” is designed for independent investigators interested in conducting research on “battlefield injury and care, particularly in post traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, prosthetics, and restoration of eyesight, and other vision-related ailments. …”[1]

The focus of Dr. Cripton’s research is to establish the allowable limit of vibrations for a person with an acute spinal cord injury. A broken bone through injurious compression, tension shear or bending of the spine can all damage the spinal cord and thus cause partial or complete paralysis. This also creates an unstable spine. Vibration of the unstable spine could exacerbate the effects of the spinal cord injury.

Dr. Cripton hopes to find guidelines for the safe medical evacuation of people with spinal injuries including military personnel as well as civilians. He hopes to develop the best evacuation procedure for people in emergency situations. For example, for a civilian who injures their spinal cord in a car accident, the vibrations caused by a bumpy ambulance ride to the hospital can potentially make the injury worse. For a soldier being evacuated from battlefield by helicopter, the vibrations of could also cause exacerbation of the spinal cord injury.

Dr. Cripton’s collaboration on this three year project with the University of Iowa, which specializes in vibrations, the United States Army Aero Medical Research laboratory, and UBC spine surgeon/neuroscientist Brian Kwon, will provide invaluable research on the effect of medical evacuation-related vibration on spinal cord injuries, which will ultimately benefit both the military and civilians.